Scotland Yard is re-examining the fatal stabbing of a man from Antigua by white youths in 1959 in what became known as Britain’s first racist murder.
Kelso Cochrane, 32, who had recently arrived in the capital, was walking home from hospital in Notting Hill, west London, when he was set upon by the group.
The Metropolitan Police denied that there was a racial element to the attack and played the murder down as a robbery. It was never solved and resulted in racial tensions, one year after the Notting Hill riots.
The Met has confirmed that it is assessing historical material held in relation to the murder after Kelso’s family set up a petition demanding an apology for alleged failings in the investigation.
A spokesman said: “We will be contacting Mr Cochrane’s family so we can better understand their concerns with the original investigation.”
The case files, held at the National Archives, are closed even though the suspects have died. Kelso’s daughter Josephine, who lives in New York, said she wanted them opened.
She told the Daily Mirror: “For years, we [she and her sister Karen] were without our father and always wondering what happened, as well as the pain of abandonment and life [was] hard.”
Kelso Cochrane
Millicent Christian, Kelso’s cousin, told the newspaper that a public apology from the police would offer a form of “closure”.
She compared the murder to the racist killing of Stephen Lawrence, who was stabbed in south London in a random attack in 1993. Two of the perpetrators in his killing were convicted of murder in 2012.
Christian said: “We’re yet to receive some kind of justice for our Kelso.”
Cochrane had received treatment at Paddington Hospital for a finger injury suffered at work and was walking home on May 17 when the gang of white youths attacked and stabbed him with a stiletto.
He died near the flat he shared with his fiancée. Two suspects were arrested but released. There had been months of clashes between black youths and racists in the area.
The family’s petition demands an apology from the British government.
It details how the police investigation was littered with failings. including placing the two suspects in adjacent cells, allowing them to get their stories straight. There is no evidence police searched the suspect’s home for the murder weapon and although witnesses were shown photos of the suspects there was no identification parade. In 1968 Cochrane’s clothes were destroyed, meaning they could not be tested in the future.
The Met said the case was not closed: “The murder of Kelso Cochrane in North Kensington in 1959 remains unsolved. We are assessing the historical material held by police in relation to the murder.”
