A journalist has recalled covering “the worst crime London has known” as a teenage reporter – 50 years on from the murder of three police officers on his former patch.

Chris Rider spoke out after attending a service in memory of DC David Wombwell, Sergeant Christopher Head and PC Geoffrey Fox, who were shot dead on the afternoon of 12 August 1966 by career criminal Harry Roberts, pictured left, and his gang.

Chris, then aged 18, was working for the Shepherd’s Bush Gazette, Acton Gazette and Hammersmith Post when the crime, dubbed ‘The Massacre of Braybrook Street’, took place

He stumbled across the scene after reporting on a golden wedding anniversary nearby.

Said Chris: “I was just coming out of the door when I heard three or four loud bangs. I thought ‘what the hell is that?’. There were a couple of kids running past me and I asked what had happened. One lad said he thought a police man had been shot.

“I went around the corner and saw a police car in the middle of the road. There was a body under the car, a body in the car and a body lying somewhere close. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.

“I didn’t realise it at the time but these were two coppers that I knew quite well from Shepherd’s Bush police station – Christopher Head and David Wombwell.

“They used to give me the book, as it was known in those days, where they told me about the crimes and larcenies. They were two lovely guys. Typical London coppers of the day, with a real sense of humour.”

Depsite his shock at the scene, Chris managed to call his chief reporter Brian Collett, who was in a pub in Acton with colleagues, from a nearby house.

Chris later covered the arrest of Roberts, who was released from jail in 2014, as well as interviewing then-Home Secretary Roy Jenkins about the murders.

Both Chris and Brian attended a memorial service at Braybrook Street to the officers on Friday – the first time either had visited the scene since the massacre.

Recalling the events of five decades ago, Chris, now a writer and broadcaster living near Portsmouth, added: “It’s stayed with me all this time. It doesn’t feel like 50 years. I can still see and hear the scene in my head.

“I have this detailed view in my mind of police officers with their turned-up trousers and trilby hats, trying to trace a Standard Vanguard with the number plate PGT726, I’ll never forget that.”