'It's clear who was involved in Kelso's murder and they should have been charged

Fresh agony for family over Britain's 'first racist killing as files reveal suspect had told cops he would 'kill the first' black person he saw

- TOM PETTIFOR, MARK OLDEN

A PRIME suspect in one of the first racist murders in Britain had told police he was going to kill the first black person he saw, newly released files reveal.

But the thug was never charged with the death of Kelso Cochrane, 32, and Scotland Yard said the stabbing was not racially motivated.

No one has ever faced justice for the fatal stabbing of Kelso in 1959 by a gang of five or six white youths in Notting Hill, West London.

The National Archives has now released the files on the case, which Kelso's relatives say make clear who should have been charged.

They reveal police had little doubt who committed the crime, naming Pat Digby and John "Shoggy' Breagan. The suspects were both forced to admit being at the scene of the crime at the relevant time.

Breagan, described in the files by the police as a "vicious character", had been released from jail just 10 days before Kelso's murder for other attacks on black men.