Death of British Aristocrat’s son in Kenya the focus of scrutiny

Both the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail in the UK published further grisly details overnight on the suspicious death of Alexander Monson.

(For more on how this story was reported when it first surfaced and on what the facts then established were, read our previous article ‘British Aristocrat’s death in Kenya: links with police brutality‘)

The Daily Mail pose the question: Was aristocrat’s son murdered by the Kenyan police?

“The son of a peer who died in police custody in Kenya may have been murdered, it emerged last night.

Officers had suggested Alexander Monson died from the effects of smoking cannabis. But tests show he suffered massive head injuries.

Blunt force trauma pointed to as cause of death, questions for police

Two separate pathology reports – one by the state and another at the request of his family – concluded that the 28-year-old suffered a fatal ‘blunt force trauma’ to the back of the head, leading to swelling on the brain.”

Not only did Alexander Monson have a blow to the back of the head but its revealed that he also had injuries to his left arm (Alexander was left handed) consistent with a defensive action and an injury to the groin described as a “shoe mark in his testicles”

At 2am on Saturday he had been seen alive and well just prior to his arrest, outside of the Tandoor bar and club where he had been drinking with friends.

He was arrested around 2.30 am and held in custody overnight

Overnight friends had tried to bail him out, at 8am his fingers and head were seen through the bars of the cell, indicating he was still standing. The friends were told to leave and get details including his passport.

On their return some 2 hrs later he was found on the floor unconscious and gray.

By the time he reached Palm Beach Hospital he had been unconscious for 90mins.

He was handcuffed to the stretcher.

The hospital found his vital signs were largely normal but he was having difficulty breathing. It seems likely that the police had misdirected the hospital staff by saying he had been taken drugs, which was the cause of his condition. His father, Lord Monson commented ‘His life may have been saved if the hospital had known about the blow to the back of the head.’

The reality is that the blow to the back of his head was slowly seeping blood and building up intra-cranial pressure causing his vital organs eventually to collapse.

Alexander Monson died of cardio-respiratory arrest 5hrs later.