The detective leading the Met police fight against London’s knife crime epidemic was once the victim of a horrific attack that nearly cost his life.
Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gallagher was with friends in a disco in Lewisham in 1982 when he was slashed with a carpet knife leaving him with a foot-long scar.
He said the incident erupted over a friend’s innocuous glance at another party-goer.
His friend was stabbed in the chest nine times with a screwdriver. Mr Gallagher, then 21, tried to intervene and was set upon by a group of men.
One kicked him in the groin and when he fell another pulled back his head with his hair exposing his neck before slashing it with a knife.
He said: “My surgeon told me later that as my throat went back my jugular vein sank into my neck so the knife skimmed over the top of it. If it had nicked it I’d have been dead in 30 seconds.”
Mr Gallagher, who joined the police two years later, had emergency surgery and was given 24 internal and 44 external stitches. He later had reconstructive surgery.
No one was ever caught for the attack.
He said: “Knife crime is not a new thing and it needlessly takes life.
"I can’t tell you the impact it had on my parents, my brothers and my close friends. It will always be with me.”
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