Patrick Kelly

Patrick Kelly was beaten to death in a flat.

A 21-year-old unemployed window cleaner was tried for his murder but acquitted. The prosecution had claimed that the man had kicked Patrick Kelly to death, 'for no reason other than he was in a bad mood'.

The unemployed window cleaner had been out drinking at a pub in Tottenham with a 19-year-old friend on 30 October 1990 and had later gone back to the flat of his friends occasional 45-year-old girlfriend in Noel Park, Wood Green. Later at the flat the unemployed window cleaner and his friend had started play-fighting in her living room, and so the woman through them out.

All the while Patrick Kelly had been there asleep in front of the fire on a mat. Patrick Kelly was a former lover of the woman who lived in the flat.

A short while later the men came back to the woman's flat and the unemployed window cleaner kicked the door in, and they went in.

The unemployed window cleaner's friend then went to see his occasional girlfriend in her bedroom and whilst there they heard Patrick Kelly shouting and groaning and when they went down they saw Patrick Kelly and the unemployed window cleaner fighting and so pulled them apart after which the unemployed window cleaner and his friend then left the flat.

Patrick Kelly died the following day. His post-mortem showed that he had 16 fractured ribs, including four broken ribs that had penetrated his chest cavity and pierced his lungs, causing them to collapse.

The unemployed window cleaner went to the police station the following day and was charged with Patrick Kelly's murder.

However, he said that he only punched Patrick Kelly twice, stating that Patrick Kelly had pounced on him thinking that he and his friend were the present lovers of the woman, and saying that his fatal injuries must have been caused after he left the flat.

At the trial the woman and the unemployed window cleaner's friend both said that they had seen the unemployed window cleaner kicking Patrick Kelly whilst he was on the floor, but the unemployed window cleaner said that that 'must have been a mistake', and he was acquitted.

Patrick Kelly had lived on the Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham. He was known as Patrick 'Patsy' Kelly.