Family fury at secrecy over Britain’s ‘first race murder’
Access denied to file on 65-yr-old killing
THE family of the victim of the “first racist murder in Britain’’ have criticised a decision to deny them access to police files on his unsolved killing.
The National Archives has inflicted a fresh blow on the family by refusing their request to release the files on the 65-year-old riddle, after the Metropolitan Police said the case remains open.
No one has been charged with the fatal stabbing of Kelso Cochrane, 32, in 1959 by a gang of five or six white youths in Notting Hill, West London.
The carpenter, from Antigua, was encircled, kicked and hit by the mob as he headed home.
Two Jamaican men saw the incident and ran to help. They got Kelso into a taxi and took him to hospital, where he died from a knife wound to the heart.
A newspaper reported that a young woman, Joy Okine, had seen the savage murder from a window. She asked for police protection in the following days.
Meanwhile, detectives and council workers searched drains in Notting Hill for the murder weapon. Scotland Yard claimed the attack was not racially motivated but many thought it was the UK’s first racist killing.
Decades later, in 2006, Kelso’s older brother, Stanley, came to England and was followed by a documentary team as he tried to find out who killed him.
Kelso’s daughter Josephine, who lives in New York, said of the refusal: “All the family wants is justice and closure for his daughters, who never got the chance to know their father.”
Kelso’s cousin, Millicent Christian, added: “The family is
devastated and completely deflated. With the detailed application, backed up by supporting evidence, we were hopeful that they would have been fair, justiciable, and open the file.
“It’s clear to see the reasons given for refusing was a cut and paste exercise without considering the legal principles and the factual basis of the application. It’s very disappointing.
“What are they hiding from the family? We need to know.”
The files are due to be released in 2054 and National Archives said: “Disclosure of this information into the public domain would prejudice a future investigation or prosecution.”
The family’s lawyer, Daniel Machover, said the refusal to release the files makes no sense.
He said the evidence provided to them “indicates there are no surviving suspects and no chance at all of any homicide charges, given the past destruction of physical evidence”.
He added: “There is no indication from TNA that they or anyone involved in the latest decision fully considered the material submitted in support of the public interest in favour of granting the family immediate access to the murder investigation papers.”
Mr Machover has requested an internal review into the decision with a view to granting full access.
The refusal was a cut and paste job that failed to consider the basis of the application
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