Who Killed Patrick Quinn? The Framing of Malcolm Kennedy
Mark Metcalf
£5 from BCM Box 3328
London WC1N 3XX
Over the last few issues Lobster has carried articles about the harassment of Malcolm Kennedy by person unknown within the British state and about his so far unsuccessful attempts to use the British legal-judicial system to stop it. This 80-page glue-bound, A5 pamphlet recounts the story of the events which preceded that harassment: how the police framed him for the murder of Patrick Quinn who was beaten to death in Hammersmith police station by a policeman or policemen; the three trials Kennedy endured; the lawsuit brought against World in Action by some of the police involved; subsequent developments; and some of the wider context, notably other deaths in police custody. (Getting arrested, like going into hospital these days, is seriously bad for your health.)
That Kennedy could be so convicted, despite the forensic evidence, and the usual indicators of police cover-up evidence ‘lost’, police ‘too ill’ to testify; despite media interest; and despite the attention of some MPs, is one of the great scandals of recent British legal history. And meanwhile the murder of Patrick Quinn remains unsolved. This subject is surely worthy of a book-length treatment.