Two brothers on trial for 1984 murder of gay man in London
Anthony Littler was murdered in East Finchley in 1984 (Wikimedia Commons | Met Police)
Two brothers are on trial for a former cold case involving the killing of a gay man in North London back in 1984.
Michael and Anthony Stewart, now aged 57 and 60, allegedly ambushed 45-year-old civil servant Anthony Littler as he walked alone down an alleyway in East Finchley in the early hours of 1 May 1984. The brothers were aged 15 and 18 at the time of Littler’s death.
Littler, who was gay and a real ale enthusiast, was heading home after an evening in a Surrey pub for a meeting of The Society for the Preservation of Beer from the Wood when he was hit twice over the head with blunt weapons.
He was found mortally wounded from two skull fractures and a “catastrophic brain injury” half an hour after the attack. His briefcase, credit cards and £80 in cash were still on him when he was found.
The case remained cold for almost 30 years, despite police efforts to catch the culprits and an appeal for leads from BBC Crimewatch and ITV’s Police 5.
The Stewart brothers told police, who were going house-to-house for information, in 1984 that they were both at home at the time of the attack and that they never used the alleyway in which his body was found.
However, new information came to light on the 29th anniversary of Littler’s death when Michael and Anthony Stewart’s younger brother Daniel came forward following a family argument. Police reopened the investigation in 2022 and began a covert investigation into the brothers.
Jurors at the Old Bailey trial on 20 April heard that Daniel Stewart told police that his brothers had confessed to killing Littler and had boasted about “queer bashing”.
Michael Stewart also allegedly confessed to a girlfriend and had even shown her the scene of the crime, with the court hearing that Michael had a “loose tongue” surrounding Littler’s killing.
“You will hear that this was not the only time that Michael Stewart, Anthony Stewart and others associated with them used violence on a solitary man they did not know, in a public place,” Prosecutor John Price KC told jurors.
“By the spring of 1984, it is alleged by the prosecution that for quite a while this had been a habit or hobby of theirs,” he continued. “It was something they enjoyed doing. They had begun by targeting men whom they thought might be homosexual men.”
In a 2025 interview, the Stewarts’ sister Gaynor also told police that Michael and Anthony were racist and had engaged in “queer bashing and P*** bashing”.
It is believed that there was a third assailant operating with the brothers but they are yet to be identified.
The trial at the Old Bailey was adjourned until 21 April.
