Police and prosecutors should have done more to deter people from making false allegations about the death of Kevin Mcleod, who drowned after an accidental fall at Wick harbour in 1997, a report into his death has concluded.
The Merseyside Police probe criticised a series of unreliable witnesses who approached Kevin’s family with “false allegations”.
Kevin’s relatives continue to believe he was murdered despite no evidence of criminality being detected by the latest independent review.
As many as seven witnesses sustained suspicions of foul play over the decades with theories which were “fuelled in the main by rumour and conjecture”.
Investigators said that caused “anxiety” for the family and led to a “waste of police resources in pursuit of fruitless investigations” over 25 years.
The Merseyside report determined that Kevin was “suffering the effects of alcohol” when he fell onto the deck of the fishing boat, MFV Aurora.
Experts agreed that the young man suffered “catastrophic internal injuries” by impacting on one or more of the creel nets on the deck of the boat before going into the water where Kevin drowned.
Merseyside detectives concede they “cannot discount the possibility that he may have been pushed from the quayside” although it’s “highly unlikely”.
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