Colin Roach was a 21-year-old black British man who died as a result of a fatal gunshot wound having entered a police-station reception.
[1][2] A subsequent inquest ruled his death was suicide - him having placed the barrel of a shotgun in to his mouth before squeezing the trigger - inside the entrance of Stoke Newington police station, in the London Borough of Hackney, on 12 January 1983.
[3][4] Amid allegations of a police cover-up, the case became a cause célèbre for civil rights campaigners and black community groups in the United Kingdom.
[5] The death was made famous by the late civil rights protester and singer Sinéad O'Connor's song "Black Boys on Mopeds".
[6] Prior to Roach's death, Hackney Black People's Association had been calling for a public inquiry into policing in the area, alleging that there existed a culture of police brutality, wrongful detention of black people, racial harassment, and racially motivated "stopping and searching.
[8] INQUEST, the United Kingdom pressure group founded following the death of Blair Peach at the hands of police in April 1979, was highly critical of the coroner's directions to the jury, and said that he had wrongly pointed them towards a verdict of suicide.
[11] After refusing his request to be dropped off at Bethnal Green Police Station, Roach told Scully he wanted to go see his brother in Stoke Newington.
"[23] O'Connor's song "Black Boys on Mopeds" refers to Thatcher-era Britain where government concern with protests overseas was prioritised over domestic race issues.
The song featured the lyrics "Margaret Thatcher on TV, Shocked by the deaths that took place in Beijing.. England’s not the mythical land of Madame George and roses, It’s the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds".
[25] Roach's death, and that of Altab Ali, provide context for Joe Thomas' 2023 crime novel White Riot.