A man who was arrested five minutes before the execution of Roland Marwood at Pentonville pleaded not guilty to being drunk and disorderly outside the prison.

Alexander McFast, 28, a hotel porter of Colberg Place, Stamford Hill, was apparently found standing outside the entrance of the jail in Caledonian Road, shouting: "They are hanging that poor fellow just because he killed a copper".

A policeman asked him to leave but he refused and continued shouting.

Marwood, 25, was a scaffolder convicted of killing Pc Raymond Summers in a gang fight between two groups of Teddy Boys outside a dance hall in Seven Sisters Road.

He'd apparently gone out alone and drunk 10 pints of beer on his first wedding anniversary because his wife preferred to stay in. Marwood went on the run and denied the murder, but later handed himself in telling detectives, "I did stab the copper that night. I will never know why I did it."