At Oxford’s Wesley Memorial Church, Janet Alder offered a harrowing and unflinching account of resilience in the face of systemic injustice. Launched 26 years after the killing of Janet’s brother, Christopher Alder, in Humberside Police custody, her book – co-authored with Dan Glazebrook – sheds light on a case that drew national outrage but remains shrouded in unanswered questions. With Dan’s steadfast support, Janet recounts the tragic events surrounding Christopher’s death and her decades-long battle against police mistreatment.
Janet and Dan’s collaboration began in 2000 when Dan, then a university student, organised a screening of Injustice, a documentary surrounding police brutality, even after cinemas refused to screen it due to persistent police pressure. Janet attended the event, and their shared commitment to justice forged a friendship that has endured for decades. Now, their combined efforts bring Janet’s story to light.
Christopher Alder, a former British paratrooper, died in 1998 while handcuffed and lying face down on the floor of a Hull police station, his trousers and boxer shorts pulled down to his knees. Nearby, a group of officers stood chatting and laughing, indifferent to the blood pooling around Christopher’s mouth as he choked on his last breaths. CCTV footage shows a white girl coming into the very same custody suite, upon seeing the cut on her finger, the policemen rally around her, enthusiastically saying ‘we have to get you some medical attention’.
Beyond the police’s negligent double standards that led to Christopher Alder’s unlawful killing, Janet Alder faced a further violation: police surveillance. Janet began suspecting she was being followed by plainclothes officers just two weeks after her brother’s death. “I knew I was asking the right questions to the wrong people,” she recalls.
Despite her suspicions, Janet’s attempts to report the surveillance- including to her local MP- yielded no results. Repeatedly, she was told by authorities that there was “no evidence” to support her claims.
It wasn’t until 2013 – fifteen years after Christopher’s death- that her suspicions were vindicated. Revelations about police surveillance of Stephen Lawrence’s mother, Doreen Lawrence, exposed a pattern of illegal spying on grieving families seeking justice. Janet learned that she too had been a target of unlawful police surveillance throughout her fight for accountability.
In 2000, Christopher was laid to rest- or so his family believed. In a shocking revelation years later, it emerged that his body had remained in a mortuary and was swapped with that of Grace Kamara, a 77-year-old black woman. Police trainees had even been shown Christopher’s body during mortuary visits under the pretence that it was Kamara’s. Janet calls it “a sick joke,” highlighting the glaring discrepancies: Kamara was 6’1″, while Christopher was 5’6″; their ages (77 and 37 respectively) and appearances were starkly different.
Janet Alder’s family has long borne the brunt of state brutality. Her parents, part of the Windrush generation, migrated to the UK from Nigeria, lured by promises of a better life. Yet, when Janet’s mother experienced a psychiatric crisis and her relationship with Janet’s father broke down, the UK government offered no support. Instead of helping her separate from her husband and care for her children, they deported her. Janet has never met her mother.
Janet, Christopher, and their siblings were placed in state care, enduring mental and physical abuse in a harshly regimented state care home. For Janet, the negligence and injustices of the British state have been a constant, shaping her life in deeply painful ways.
For Janet, the book is both a form of catharsis and an act of resistance. “I had to keep my sanity,” she shared at the launch. ‘To walk away from this, I think it would have left me totally demented so I had to go with what I believed, I had to go with what I was seeing, and I had to go with my intuition (…) because anything less would have destroyed me, and it would have buried this disgusting, inhumane way that Christopher was treated and the way my family was treated.’
Sharing her story during the book’s launch in Oxford, last Thursday, Janet shone as a symbol of strength and resilience in the face of institutional oppression. Despite over 25 years of legal battles, no convictions, and no justice, her story is one of unwavering defiance and determination to expose the truth.
The book’s release was marked by Dan’s insightful interjections and a poignant discussion with former Labour councillor Jabu Nala-Hartley, who drew parallels between Janet’s struggle and broader systemic failures. She reflected: “The ICJ has ruled that Israel is commiting Genocide, but what has Israel done? They continue to do what they like. So what is the legal system there for? Jabu asks “Who has put them there? Who gives them the power to tell us that people are wrong when they are challenging systems that are destroying us and destroying our planet?”
Defiance: Racial Injustice, Police Brutality, A Sister’s Fight for the Truth is available at Waterstones, Oxford’s Blackwell’s, and online at : https://housmans.com/product/defiance-racial-injustice-police-brutality-a-sisters-fight-for-the-truth/
