Chris Kaba killing: Should it have ever gone to trial?
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The police officer who fired the fatal bullet at 24-year-old Chris Kaba has been acquitted of murder. But should the case have gone to trial in the first place?
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Read time: 6 minutes
In brief…
- Martyn Blake, a firearms officer in the Metropolitan Police, has been cleared of the murder of Chris Kaba.
- The CPS has come under fire for bringing the case to trial after details of the case and Kaba’s criminal background emerged.
- The News Agents hear from Andy Hughes, Ken McDonald and Dal Babu, as they investigate what it all means.
'It would be damaging for police officers to face a different justice system'
What’s the story?
The Metropolitan Police officer who shot and killed Chris Kaba in 2022 has been cleared of murder.
The 24-year-old’s death came when tensions were running high between the public and the police. It was just two years after the killing of George Floyd in America, and 10 years after the murder of Mark Duggan sparked the London riots.
Protests were also triggered in the wake of Kaba’s death as anger erupted at the Met over the alleged injustice of the murder of another black man.
But when Martyn Blake was charged with his murder in 2023, another backlash unfolded.
This time, it was from scores of Met officers who laid down their firearms in protest, arguing their colleague was just doing his job. The ruling drew widespread outrage not just among the police, but also among the politicians including the then Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
Now, Blake has been acquitted by a jury following a three-week trial at the Old Bailey. It means his suspension from duty will be lifted with immediate effect.
Questions are now being asked, particularly by the Met, of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for bringing the case to trial in the first place.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), the independent police watchdog, has also come under scrutiny for its investigation into the incident.
Meanwhile, Kaba's family have said they are devastated by the verdict, saying the acquittal is not “just a failure for our family, but for all those affected by police violence".
They vowed that they "won't be silenced" and will keep fighting for "justice and for real change".
So was the case right to go to trial?
And what impact will this have on policing, the force’s relationship with the CPS, the public and the black community.
What happened on the day of Kaba’s death?
The jury in the trial deliberated over just 13 seconds of activity.
It started with the police’s initial stop of Kaba in an Audi Q8, a vehicle linked to a previous shooting in Brixton, which he was driving through Kirkstall Gardens in Streatham.
The jury heard how after police cars boxed Kaba in during the stop, he drove forwards trying to ram his way free.
Blake said he feared one of his colleagues would be killed if he did not take action, so he fired a shot through Kaba’s windscreen.
He died from a single bullet shot to the head.
Journalists 'waiting to report Chris Kaba's criminal history'
What do we know about Chris Kaba’s criminal background?
Andy Hughes, Sky News’ crime correspondent, tells Emily and Jon that people in the police described Kaba to him as “the hitman for one of the most feared and powerful and armed gangs in South London”.
Kaba had several previous convictions, which the jury was not made aware of during the trial.
These include for affray and imitation of a firearm.
He was also accused of being the gunman in a nightclub shooting.
Kaba was found with a balaclava in his pocket after the shooting, and gun residue which may or may not have come from the police’s gunshot.
There was a debate in the run-up to the trial over whether the jury should have been informed about Kaba’s background.
The prosecution argued that none of that detail should go before the jury, and the judge agreed, arguing it wasn’t relevant to what happened on the night.
But members of the press, including Hughes, were well aware.
“We were waiting for this day where we could report Chris Kaba's criminal history,” he says.
Should the case have gone to trial?
Some have been left scratching their heads at how someone with Kaba’s criminal background, and the evidence in the case, resulted in a murder charge.
Hughes says: “One journalist yesterday described it to me as the worst case he's ever seen being brought to court.
“And another journalist said to me, this is the most obvious not-guilty I've ever seen.”
Dal Babu, a former chief superintendent in the Met, tells The News Agents he’s yet to meet a person in the criminal justice system who said that murder was an appropriate charge for Blake.
Lord Ken McDonald, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, tells Emily and Jon that while he is not in a position himself to make such a judgement, in such a serious case it would “almost always be in the public interest to prosecute a murder case.”
But prosecutors must also balance this against the evidence in the case to determine whether it should be brought to trial.
He says: “I think the most pertinent factor is that he was using the car as a weapon. There was a police officer… saying it's not quite accurate to describe him as unarmed. He was armed with a two and a half ton Audi, which he was using to ram the police.”
Ultimately, the CPS decided there was still enough evidence to prosecute Blake for murder after an investigation by the IOPC, but that decision would not have been taken lightly.
McDonald says the fact that Blake was acquitted “doesn't necessarily mean that it was wrong” for the CPS to make the charge.
“They'd have given it very anxious consideration, because prosecuting a police officer for murder is a very, very serious step to take and a very unattractive prosecution for the CPS.”
“It's not something they're leaping to do. It's not something not something they want to do. For all the obvious reasons, juries tend to be sympathetic to police,” he adds.
Frank Ferguson, Head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said in a statement: “We recognise that firearms officers operate under enormous pressure, but it is our responsibility to put cases before a jury that meet our test for prosecution, and we are satisfied that test was met in this case.
“It is therefore right that the case was put before the jury for them to scrutinise and to decide.
“They have carefully considered each piece of evidence, including video and Martyn Blake’s own account. They have made up their minds in the proper way and we thank them for doing so.”
Has a potential lack of trust in the police had an impact?
The firearms officers may have been “vindicated, because it's gone through the criminal justice process and they've not been found guilty”, says Baba.
But perhaps this could have been settled earlier if the community had confidence in the Met, and it being properly held to account.
Baba says that fundamentally, the whole argument boils down to this key issue - a deep lack of trust in the police force which he says struggles to understand the importance of “equality, particularly race”.
In 2023, a report found the Met to be institutionally racist, sexist, misogynistic and homophobic.
Babu claims there has been “no acknowledgement of institutional racism”, since the report came out.
“We had people who've been in the governance of the Metropolitan Police denying that institutional racing exists. So I think there's a real challenge here”, he says. .
So despite Blake being cleared of the charge of killing Kaba, people will still “have their own narratives, their own idea of what happened” because of this fundamental mistrust, Babu says.
This in turn has an impact on the day to day delivery of policing, he adds.
Listen in full on The News Agents.
