The family of Jay Abatan, a black man who was murdered in a
racist attack in January 1999 are still seeking justice as his
murderers have not faced trial. An internal tribunal earlier
this year resulted in minimal disciplinary action against the
Detective Superintendent who presided over the case.
A
further tribunal this week has been called after the family
raised concerns including the fact that a Sussex police officer
gave good character evidence for the defendants in court. The
family were not made aware of the relationships between the
defendants and Sussex police before the court case. Jay
Abatan's family are concerned that the disciplinary is
not addressing this matter. It has exposed further flaws in the
case, including the fact that the police did not set up an
incident room or use a holmes computer – which are standard
practice on murder
cases. Similar cases were given incident rooms. Officers in the
tribunal have said they were told to work on other
priorities, to work on Jay’s murder investigation “in their
downtime” and no overtime was allowed.
During the case, the family's complaints initiated two inquiries
which lead to the replacement of the original investigating
team. Media reports on these inquiries
also highlighted
serious flaws in the case.
The family are demanding the release of the Avon and Somerset
report into the first investigation. The IPCC identified
systematic failings in the investigation, and states that this
report highlights general failings by the investigating team and
senior management. The report has so far, been denied to the
family.
Michael Abatan, brother of Jay Abatan, said:
“Sussex police’s own tribunals concluded that there were serious
organisational failings in the investigation of my brother’s
racist murder. These
failings have national implications. The Home Secretary
told us
early on that Sussex
police had been thorough in the investigation but we believe
Sussex police mislead the Home Secretary by suggesting a number
of reviews had taken place to address their concerns when none
had been carried out at
that stage. I do not want to see another family go through what
we have been through. We
are demanding the release of the police reports which, when
leaked to the press, highlighted serious failings. These reports
are now a matter of national public interest.”
Lee Jasper, Secretary of the National Assembly
Against Racism said “ This case
exposes that Black people are still being treated as second
class citizens by the police. Jay Abatan’s murder investigation
was happening as the Lawrence inquiry report was being
published, yet the investigation contains many of the same
failings which meant the Lawrence family were denied justice. We
need more than a few internal tribunals to bring Jay’s murderers
to court – we support the family’s call for the release of the
police reports”