THE father of a man stabbed to death outside a pub described the inquiry into his son's murder as a "disaster" after the teenager branded a killer in a poem was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Nathan Dixon, 18, was named in poems displayed on lampposts and at bus stops around the city where the murder took place. But a jury decided yesterday he was not responsible for the death of Paul Kelly, originally from Glasgow.
Mr Kelly, 32, die
d in a pool of blood in an alleyway outside the Longacre Tavern in Bath on New Year's Day, 2007.
In emotionally charged scenes after the verdict, Mr Kelly's father, also Paul, 56, said he would "remortgage his home" in a bid to win justice for his son through the civil courts.
Flanked by his tearful wife and two daughters, who had travelled to Bristol Crown Court from Glasgow with him, said: "I am appalled and disgusted by what has happened. We feel we were portrayed during the trial as 'the gangsters from Glasgow'. Our lives have been destroyed by this. I have lost a son. Do you know how that feels?
"I do not know what else I can do now but remortgage out the house and begin civil proceedings. This investigation has been a disaster from the start."
During the trial, Neil Ford, prosecuting, said Dixon, nicknamed Nitro, had been seen to launch into a "frenzied attack" on Mr Kelly.
But the jury of six men and six women accepted the defence's argument that the witnesses presented in court had been "unreliable".
More than 20 people were thought to have seen the brawl, which resulted in Mr Kelly being knifed. But in the months afterwards, police said they hit a "wall of silence" from people known to have been in the pub that night. With no-one charged, a poem, by an unknown author, appeared on bus stops and lampposts near the scene. It claimed Dixon was the killer and that the knife had been thrown into the River Avon.
In the poem, "Running From Paul Kelly", the murder was described as "black on white", suggesting a racist motive. The poet, who did not sign the work, described how he or she and other witnesses were threatened and were ashamed that "we turned our backs".
With no-one coming forward as the author, the poem was not mentioned by prosecutors as Dixon stood trial.
His defence team would later dismiss the poem during the proceedings.
During the two-week trial, the court heard Dixon, also from Bath, allegedly boasted he was a "murderer" in rap music slang in the months after Mr Kelly's death. Mr Ford said Dixon had told a friend, "I'm a 187" – the Californian penal code for first-degree murder.
But Richard Carey-Hughes, defending, said the witnesses presented by the prosecution had been "unreliable" and "lying". He went on: "The witnesses did not establish that Mr Dixon had stabbed someone."
Mr Kelly, who had lived in Bath for several years, was with a group of friends at the Longacre Tavern when an argument broke out. During Dixon's defence, it was claimed Mr Kelly had been yelling racist abuse before the attack.
As the jury delivered its verdict after more than nine hours' deliberations, the Kelly family stormed out of the court in tears.
An Avon and Somerset Police spokesman admitted officers had been "disappointed" by the verdict.
"We are not looking for anyone else," he added.
The full article contains 587 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
