First recorded Black death in police custody

Courtesy of Blaqfair – written by John Leider
Any news updates on this case will be listed at the foot of this item

Also visit: Oluwale Memorial Page >

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, on 8th September 1930, David Oluwale is the first of 1000′s of Black people to die in police custody in Britain.  On 16th August 1949, David stows away on board the Temple Star from Nigeria en route to Britain. He is discovered during the voyage.

On arrival in Britain, he spends 28 days in prison, “the price of a ticket from Lagos.”  David is a Yoruba. An ambitious young man, he aims to study engineering once he is settled in Britain.

David settles in Leeds, a northern English industrial city. He experiences the usual difficulties Black immigrants to Britain have in finding accommodation.  He finds work at West Yorkshire Foundries, a local brickworks.

At work he is noted for reading “educated” newspapers.  David is at home in the local Black community. He goes to dances. He settles down with Gladys and the couple has two children.

The police are the chief source of hassle for Blacks in Leeds. Until its repeal in 1981, section 4 of The Vagrancy Act 1824, empowers the police to stop anyone they suspect (sus) of committing an offence. The “sus” law is the weapon of choice used by police to harass Blacks. They stop David regularly.

In 1953, David is arrested during a police raid on a nightclub. The police charge him with assaulting and obstructing an officer. They tell him if he pleas guilty to the charges he will get bail. Otherwise he will be remanded in custody until his trial. He agrees.  At his trial in April, the magistrate sentences David to three months in prison.

In June, David is discharged from prison to a psychiatric hospital where he is to stay for the next 8 years. He is 22 years old.  Friends are confused about what happened to David in prison to drive him insane. How can a man be sane enough to stand trial in April and be insane in June?

In 1959, David is released from hospital. By this time the relationship with Gladys is finished.  David is a vagrant.  The police and local racist thugs beat him often.  Two policemen in particular, inspector Geoffrey Ellerker and Sergeant Kenneth Kitching, make it their to business to beat and abuse David. They would often charge him with wounding and obstructing for which he receives prison sentences.

Within a month of being released from prison, David is arrested, charged and convicted of maliciously wounding a police officer. The magistrate sentences him to three months in prison. David is sent to prison repeatedly over the years.  In 1965, David is committed to a psychiatric hospital.  On his release, Ellerker and Kitching intensify their harassment of him. On one occasion, after having repeatedly kicked him in his testicle, they take him to a remote pub and left him there at 4.40 a.m.

On another occasion, again having attacked his gentiles and other parts of his body with kicks and truncheons, they take the injured David to Middleton Woods and abandoned him there at 3.30am.  On a third on occasion, witnesses testify to having seen Ellerker and Kitching pissing on David while he sleeps in the doorway of the Bridal House shop where he often shelters.

April 16, 1969, is the last time David is seen alive. He is in the company of Ellerker and Kitching. They find him asleep in the doorway of the Bridal House shop at about 3 a.m. Ellerker and Kitching attack him with their truncheon.  Later, David is found dead in the River Aire. Ellerker and Kitching are charged with assault and manslaughter of David.

Ellerker is found guilty of four charges of assaulting David. He is sentenced to three years in prison.  Kitching is convicted on three counts of assault and receives a four-year prison sentence.  The trial judge tells the jury to find both officers not guilty of the manslaughter of David Oluwale.

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Follow-up News:

The David Oluwale Memorial Appeal
An appeal has been launched for a memorial in Leeds to David Oluwale, who was found dead in the River Aire in 1969. Two police officers were later prosecuted and convicted of assaulting him.

Legacy of Hate
The brutal story of a Nigerian immigrant hounded to death by
police in the 1960s still resonates today, writes Kester Aspden
30th May 2007

Long awaited book – ‘The Hounding of David Oluwale’ >

James Walker interview with Kester Aspden >

The Hounding of David Oluwale
The official trailer for The Hounding of David Oluwale
by Eclipse Theatre. The play toured nationally to great acclaim in 2009.