Death of Ricky Reel
1997 death in the United Kingdom / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lakhvinder "Ricky" Reel, a 20-year-old British man, died in October 1997 in London, United Kingdom. He was last seen alive in the early morning of 15 October and on 21 October his body was recovered from the River Thames near Down Hall Road, in the town centre of Kingston upon Thames.[1]
Ricky Reel | |
---|---|
Died | October 1997 Kingston upon Thames, London, England |
Cause of death | Open verdict |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | Brunel University |
Reel and his friends were subject to a racially-motivated attack shortly before his death, but the Metropolitan Police deemed this as unrelated and initially closed the case as an accidental death. Reel's family initiated a campaign for justice which saw this overturned – an open verdict was declared instead and witness intimidation was reported. A complaint regarding numerous failures during the course of the police investigation was upheld by the Police Complaints Authority. It was later also revealed that the Metropolitan Police's undercover Special Demonstration Squad had spied on Reel's family as a result of their campaigning.
Reel's mother, Sukhdev, continues to seek justice on the belief that her son was murdered and that police failures have been related to racism.[2]