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Police 'suggested' parts of murder case statement

James Cusick
Saturday 05 March 1994 00:02 GMT
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AN OFFICER on duty at Hammersmith police station in west London the night an Irish labourer was murdered in his cell, said police investigating the case 'suggested' parts of a statement he gave, the Old Bailey was told yesterday, writes James Cusick.

Constable Emlyn Welsh was giving evidence at the retrial of Malcolm Kennedy. Mr Kennedy was found guilty in 1991 of stamping to death his cellmate, Patrick Quinn, on Christmas Eve 1990. The Court of Appeal last year quashed the verdict after new evidence emerged and ordered a retrial.

Michael Mansfield QC, for the defence, was questioning PC Welsh over a statement he gave to Thames Valley Police who looked at the case in 1992.

The statement said that PC Welsh 'resumed mobile patrol' in a car roughly between 2.30am and 5.45am on 24 December 1990. Mr Quinn's body was discovered about 1.50am. PC Welsh told the court he 'was not entirely sure what happened during that time' and could not remember if he was in or out of the station.

He said Thames Valley had 'suggested' that he was on patrol. He had been 'tempted to agree with something that isn't fact'. Mr Mansfield suggested that PC Welsh had helped a cover-up. PC Welsh, denying any involvement, said: 'Let me be honest, nobody in the station was happy.'

PC Welsh's partner on the night of the murder was PC Paul Giles. Mr Mansfield has stated that PC Giles is a central figure in what happened, but he has been diagnosed as suffering from a mental illness and will not be called.

The trial continues.

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