Crimestoppers UK and learnt about the Crimestoppers scheme, he saw it as a good opportunity to get the community involved in crime-fighting. Other areas around the UK also learned of Crimestoppers and took it up around this time but there was no national, co-ordinated approach. In 1985, PC Keith Blakelock was murdered during the riots at the Broadwater Farm Estate in London and the police appealed for information, stating that people knew who had been responsible but were frightened of coming forward. Michael Ashcroft (now Lord Ashcroft, KCMG and Chairman of the Trustees of Crimestoppers), a businessman, offered to provide the police
Death of Keith Blakelock In 1983 Silcott was given a government grant to open a greengrocer's on the deck of the Tangere block of Broadwater Farm. More convictions followed: in October that year he was fined for possessing a flick knife and in March 1984 for obstructing police. In 1985 he made the news when he told Diana, Princess of Wales, who was on an official visit to Broadwater Farm, that she should not have come without bringing jobs, which "The Sun" interpreted as a threat. In December 1984 Silcott was arrested for the murder of a 22-year-old boxer, Anthony Smith, at a party