Renewed FoI application reveals shocking new details about ‘Britain’s first racist murder’
15 Jul 2024
New details about ‘Britain’s first racist murder’ have been revealed in a Freedom of Information application brought by the victim Kelso Cochrane’s family, as represented by Daniel Machover.
Kelso, a carpenter from Antigua, was stabbed to death in May 1959 during an attack by a white gang in Notting Hill, west London. No one was ever charged.
Assisted by Daniel Machover, Kelso’s relative Millicent Christian successfully challenged the Met police’s refusal to release its files on the case, held in The National Archives. The FoI request was initially refused by The National Archives, at the insistence of the MPS. But the family did not give up: after an appeal the MPS backed down and access to the papers was (mostly) granted.
While some papers will still be withheld from public access and some names are being deleted before the papers are ‘opened’ for public access, the first set of public documents reveals how one of the suspects told police at the time of his arrest in 1957 that he would kill the first black man he saw once released from prison – adding ‘and I mean that’.
John William Breagan, who had previously stabbed three black men, made the shocking threat on being arrested for those earlier racist attacks; and Breagan was released from his prison sentence just ten days before Kelso was murdered.
Despite knowing this at the time, the police claimed in May 1959 that there was no evidence that racism played a part in the assault on Kelso.
The BBC’s Sanchia Berg and freelance journalist Mark Olden have both covered this case extensively. Their reporting on the most recent developments can be found here and here.
Daniel Machover worked closely with Tom Hickman KC and Zafar Ansari, both of Blackstone Chambers, on the family’s extensive legal representation to the National Archives in this case.
