Liz Sherlock The life of Liz Sherlock, a top

Liz Sherlock

The life of Liz Sherlock, a top TV and theatre costume designer, was snuffed out when she stood up to two drug addicts who craved their next fix.

Those who knew Mrs Sherlock said it was her sense of right and wrong that drove her to chase the bag snatcher who pounced as she sat waiting for a train at Euston station with her loving husband Peter.

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Her response was bold but typical of a woman no doubt sickened by the brazen opportunism of a street criminal.

Instinctively Mrs Sherlock took up the chase as the mugger, Jackie Moorehouse ran to a getaway car nearby.

She jumped onto the bonnet of the white Ford Fiesta screaming ‘look what’s happening’ in front of astonished onlookers.

But the driver Mark Woolley accelerated and braked violently throwing Mrs Sherlock onto the road where she would be crushed under the wheels.

Only minutes earlier Mrs Sherlock and her husband of six years computer consultancy boss Peter had been relaxing and looking forward to a rare break together.

The couple were waiting for a train to take them north from Euston station to her father’s 80th birthday bash at the family home near Bolton in Lancs.

But as the couple supped coffee in Caffe Ritazza a tragic chain of events were sparked when Moorehouse entered their lives.

The backgrounds of Mrs Sherlock and the killers who drew her into the fatal confrontation could hardly have been different.

Mrs Sherlock had an impressive CV boasting BBC credits which included Last of the Summer Wine, the Ben Elton Show, the Royal Variety Performance and It’s a Knockout.

She had recently turned freelance after leaving the BBC after 12 years and had just completed work on her first feature film, a Hollywood production called The Four Feathers.

Mrs Sherlock, the youngest of three sisters, had planned to join her family to celebrate the 80th birthday of her father Joseph.

Moorehouse and Woolley were career criminals who spent their days thieving bags from their victims, working a ‘system’ which targeted bars and cafes around central London.

Woolley was described by his own barrister as a ‘sad litany of crime’ while Moorehouse

Routinely the pair would buy drugs

Mrs Sherlock, who was only 5ft 2in, was remarkably brave in the way she tried to stop the thieves.

Tributes were paid from friends and celebrities alike although police were reluctant to encourage have-a-go-heroes from tackling street criminals.