Kenyan police officers in court over killing of British aristocrat as mother gives tearful testimony

The mother of a British aristocrat who died in police custody on Tuesday wept in court as four Kenyan police officers went on trial accused of his murder.

Alexander Monson, 28, the son of a peer, was found dead in police custody in 2012 after what the officers claimed was a drug overdose.

He had been arrested on suspicion of possession of cannabis following a night out in the Diani beach resort near Mombasa. The police officers have been accused of beating Mr Monson to death.

His mother, Hilary Monson, wept as she told the court in Mombasa her son had not been a drug addict at the time of his death.

She said: "I know my son, like many youths, used drugs. He had a problem at one point, but he had gone through a great deal of suffering to sort himself out."

The dead Briton's father Lord Monson, the 12th Baron Monson of Burton, has led the campaign for justice for his son, who was heir to the family estate in Lincolnshire.

Four police officers, Naftali Chege, Charles Wangombe Munyiri, Baraka Bulima and John Pamba, have denied charges of murder.

The defendants appeared in the dock dressed casually in jeans and short-sleeved shirts.

Alexander Monson was detained by the officers in the early hours of May 19, 2012, along with a friend, outside a nightclub.

His friend was later released but Mr Monson was arrested after cannabis was allegedly discovered in his pocket.

When a family friend later went to the police station they found him on the floor of his cell barely conscious.

He was taken to hospital and handcuffed to a bed, where he died while his mother, who grew up in Kenya, was by his side.

According to the police officers Mr Monson died from a drug overdose and he sustained bruises to his head when he fell over.

However, in June last year, an inquest concluded his death was from "blunt force trauma" that could only have been caused "when the deceased was in the custody of the police".

It also found there had been attempts to cover up the death, and threats had been made against witnesses.

At the time Lord Monson said: "I was so prepared for an exoneration of the police. Kenya is notorious for its corruption."

Kenya’s director of public prosecutions subsequently ordered the arrest of the four police officers.

The high-profile case has become a litmus test of accountability for Kenya's security services.

Hussein Khalid, director of the local rights group Haki Africa, said it should not have taken so long to bring the case to trial.

He added: "All the same, it is a good example for the country that finally people who were one way or another involved in the death of an innocent person while in police custody are now standing trial."

Kenya's police watchdog, which was created in 2011, has received thousands of complaints about brutality, extrajudicial killings and corruption, but successful prosecutions remain relatively rare.

A series of prominent murders remain unsolved with some cases stretching back decades.