Ricky Reel: Hope for family as police re-investigate his death after 25 years

Police say they will re-examine the death of a student whose body was found in the River Thames 25 years ago, after more than two decades of campaigning by his family.

Ricky Reel was just 20 years old when he went missing on a night out with friends on 15 October 1997 in Kingston upon Thames.

Ricky, who was south Asian, had been with a group of friends when they were racially attacked by two white men.

He and his friends all ran in different directions to escape the abusers, but whilst the rest of his pals made it back home safely, Ricky was never seen again.

Seven days later, his body would be found at the bottom of the River Thames.

No one was ever arrested or charged with his death, and his mother Sukhdev Reel says this was down to institutional racism.

“My race, my colour, played a big part in Ricky’s investigation, simply because I’m an Asian woman,” says Mrs Reel.

Ricky’s mother says that “from day one” she had to fight for justice for her son as she claims that rather than investigating the tragic death of their son, they instead investigated the family.

‘They were stereotyping’

Mrs Reel says despite friends telling the police they had been subjected to an attack, they initially ignored these lines of inquiry, and tried to place blame on the family.

She claims they suggested he had ‘run away from home’ because he ‘may have been gay’ or escaped to ‘avoid an arranged marriage’.

“They were stereotyping and pointing fingers at my race.

“They carried out this so-called investigation with racist views in their mind,” Mrs Reel claims.

Eventually, the police would conclude that Ricky had probably died after falling into the river whilst trying to urinate.

However, a jury inquest into Ricky’s death in 1999 would return an open verdict and according to Ricky’s mum, it criticised police for not gathering enough evidence, or properly following other lines of inquiries.

“I have been fighting for the last 25 years,” says Ricky’s mother.

‘I lost a lot of family time’

Battling through her tears, she explained the toll that her son’s death, and subsequent treatment by police, has had on her family.

“Campaigning for 25 years has really deteriorated my health because, for the last 25 years, there hasn’t been a night where I have slept throughout the night.

“I lost a lot of family time. I missed lots of family birthdays, I missed my [other] children’s upbringing.”

“But I had to do what I had to do. Because my children, my family needed to know what happened,” she says.

The decades spent campaigning may have finally paid off.

After hearing reports that the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, had made a genuine commitment to reform the police and acknowledge its failings, Mrs Reel called its bluff, demanding a meeting to discuss her son’s case.

She met Commissioner Rowley on 11 January and police have now agreed they will re-investigate the case.

‘Actions speak louder than words’

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Met said: “The details of this meeting remain private.

“The Met’s Major Inquiries Specialist Casework team has re-examined the case and is now looking more closely at certain lines of inquiry from the original investigation.

“These lines of inquiry are being followed up with fresh eyes and the benefit of modern technology so we can explore every possible avenue in the hope of providing answers to Ricky’s family.”

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But Mrs Reel says “actions speak louder than words” as she explains she has been “promised” lots of things in the past.

“Time will tell,” she says.

“He promised us a lot of things and I hope he does. So that finally, I can put my feet up and say; ‘good, I’ve done it. I can look at my son’s picture and say, Ricky, I have given you what I promised’.”