First
published May 11th 2000.
IF MY
PARTNER HAD NOT BEEN BLACK WE MAY HAVE GOT JUSTICE.
THE FAMILY of a black City accountant, beaten to death in a
row over a taxi, last night accused police and the legal system of failing to
learn the lessons of Stephen Lawrence.
Tax specialist Jay Abatan, 42, the British-born son of a
Nigerian father, died five days after the attack outside a Brighton nightclub
in January last year. Yet no one has been bought to justice for his
killing. Manslaughter charges against two
white men were dropped and two days ago the same men were cleared of assaulting
Mr Abatan's brother Michael during the attack.
Michael Abatan said bitterly last night: 'My brother
followed the Lawrence case. Everyone tells me that things have changed but they
haven't. They have actually got worse. 'If a white person had died
that night it would have been totally different. Jay and I would have been
charged with murder and jailed for life. 'I am outraged and angry. I
wanted the police to do their job. I have given the legal system time to run
its course and it has given me nothing. 'It hasn't given my brother
anything. I will not rest until we find my brother's killers. I want justice
for Jay.'
Jay Abatan's partner Tanya Haynes - the couple had two young children - said: 'I probably was less aware of prejudice because I am from a white middle-class background. Now I am acutely aware of it. I believe that there would have been a different charge if Jay had been a different colour.' The couple's
Tory MP Peter Bottomley, who championed the cause of Stephen
Lawrence's parents, has written to Sussex police about the case.
But detectives insist there was no element of racism in their approach. They say the tragic truth is that there was not enough evidence to convict anyone of killing Mr Abatan.
Mr Abatan, a £60,000-a-year executive with London firm
PriceWaterhouseCooper, lived with Miss Haynes and their family in a
five-bedroom home in Eastbourne, East Sussex. On the night he was
attacked he had gone to the Ocean Rooms nightclub in Brighton with two friends
to help his brother celebrate his 31st birthday.
As they left, there was a dispute with another group over a taxi, and the brothers were punched and kicked. Jay Abatan suffered severe brain injuries and was in a coma for five days before doctors decided there was no hope for him and his life support machine was turned off.
Graham Curtis, 38, from Brighton and Peter Bell, 36, of Hove, were
arrested within 24 hours of the attack. But the Crown Prosecution Service later
decided there was insufficient evidence against Mr Bell and dropped a
manslaughter charge before he faced court.
Last June a stipendiary magistrate ruled there was
insufficient evidence for Mr Curtis to stand trial for manslaughter. Police and
the CPS tried to bring a fresh manslaughter charge, but the attempt was ruled
out by a Crown Court Judge. Instead, the two men were charged with affray and
causing actual bodily harm to Michael Abatan.
This week, after a five-day trial at Hove Crown Court, they
were found not guilty. Witnesses said the incident had been over in seconds and
Michael Abatan admits he did not see who hit his brother.
Judge Anthony Scott-Gall had ruled that the jury, which took four hours to clear the men, should not be told Jay Abatan had died in case it influenced their verdicts. Now the family want a new police team to investigate Mr Abatan’s death and some form of public enquiry.
Mr Bottomley, who was MP for Eltham when Stephen Lawrence was murdered there, and now represents Worthing West, has asked Sussex police for assurances that the investigation ‘would have been the same if the victims had been white and the suspects had been white’.
Miss Haynes, 32, a child psychotherapist, said: ‘I am devastated. I have not cried so much since Jay died.
‘I believed in good and that there are people who are there to protect us, to do justice. I no longer have that belief.
‘I think people hold innate racism and prejudices and although people will talk about such issues, at the end of the day there remains certain racist elements.’
Sussex police say that they do not believe the attack was racially-motivated. A spokesman said: ‘It was a tragic argument over a taxi. No one has admitted to striking Jay and no one witnessed who assaulted him. They are two very difficult facts.
‘We investigate violent crime as our number one priority, irrespective of who the victims are and who the offenders are.
‘We take racially-motivated crime very seriously and if we find race was a motive we can bring aggravated charges.
‘We have done that on a number of occasions.’
Detective Inspector Any Young, who was in charge of the case, added: ‘Race never has and never will have a bearing on the way we investigate violent crime and it certainly did not in this case.
‘We wanted and still do want justice for Jay and his family.’
He appealed for any witnesses to call Sussex police on: 0845 6070999.
m.seamark@dailymail.co.uk b.taylor@dailymail.co.uk