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.
Ricky’s mother Sukhdev Reel
‘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.”
Read more:
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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’.”
The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running.
Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.
Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure
The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.
The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.
The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.
These steel workers could soon be out of work
However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.
Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.
However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.
They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.
The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.
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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.
“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”
British Steel declined to comment.
UK
Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released
Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.
Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.
The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace
Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.
So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?
In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.
The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.
Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.
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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?
Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.
But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.
Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.
Read more:
Who is Yang Tenbo?
Virginia Giuffre says she has days to live
Emails between Andrew and Epstein revealed
He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…
“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.
Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.
He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.
He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.
“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”
We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.
With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.
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