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Lincoln Pennant

Age: 32

Sex: male

Date: 13 Sep 1992

Place: Arena Nightclub, 6-9 Salisbury Promenade, Green Lanes, Harringay

Lincoln Pennant was shot in the VIP lounge of the Arena nightclub in Green Lanes which he co-owned.

He was chased by a gang of at least six men that were hunting him. Six black men burst into his club on 13 September 1992 at about 3.30am, and then split up looking for him, and then shot him three times, after which he then leapt from a second floor and fell down a fire escape and his right leg became impaled on railings 40ft below.

He was rushed to the North Middlesex Hospital but later died from his gunshot wounds. His cause of death was given as gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen.

There had been about 300 to 400 people in the club at the time.

It was said that Lincoln Pennant had seen some of the men hunting him and had tried to get out through the front of the club, but had been blocked by all the nightclubbers and so he then tried to get out through the back where he was then shot as he reached the door. He then managed to stagger out and fall down the fire escape.

The police said that they believed that a handgun had been used, but they failed to find one.

The police interviewed about 200 people.

Lincoln Pennant had been a Loughborough nightclub licensee and a rave promoter and had been a co-licensee of the Arena Nightclub in Green Lanes at the time.

Three people were tried for his murder at the Old Bailey in 1994 but the case was stopped after the judge said that it would be unsafe to continue.

They were:

  1. 24-year-old Man.
  2. 25-year-old Man.
  3. 24-year-old Man.

It was said that a month before his murder, on 14 August 1992,  Lincoln Pennant had been attacked at his club by a mob armed with machetes and other weapons and that the case rested on the men on trial having been involved in both attacks.

However, the judge made his ruling after it was heard that there had been very clear evidence that the third man had not been in the country at the time of a first attack. It was further noted that the case against the other two was based entirely on identification evidence, with the evidence against the first man based mainly on recognition evidence from people who knew him.

At the trial it was claimed that the first man had had a two year grudge against Lincoln Pennant because of the way he had been treated when he was in charge of some security at a rave party.

After the case collapsed the police said that they were not looking for anyone else in relation to his murder.

It was also claimed that his murder might have related to an earlier dispute about money.

A friend said that it was understood that Lincoln Pennant had got himself into trouble with some people in the capital that provided security and that it was known that, 'people were after him'. He had set up his own security firm working in and around Leicester but moved the business to London about six months earlier. He was known to have worked as a doorman at nightclubs in Loughborough and Leicester and to have been involved in the organisation of rave parties in Cambridgeshire and the West Midlands.

A 37-year-old man went into Wood Green Police Station and confessed to Lincoln Pennant's murder 8 years later in 2000 and was convicted that same year. However, there was a retrial after it was heard that he had confessed in a drugged state and he was acquitted 6 years later in 2006. At his retrial he was described as a former drug addict. It was heard that he had told his doctor that his mind was being controlled.

Lincoln Pennant had been a former professional boxer and had been a father of three. He had lived in Hermitage Road in Loughborough.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.courtnewsuk.co.uk

see Newcastle Journal - Tuesday 15 September 1992. p5

see Loughborough Mail - Thursday 19 May 1994

see Leicester Daily Mercury - Monday 14 September 1992

see Leicester Daily Mercury - Tuesday 15 September 1992

see Loughborough Echo - Friday 30 May 1997

see Leicester Daily Mercury - Friday 02 October 1992

see Loughborough Echo - Friday 18 September 1992

see Loughborough Echo - Friday 25 September 1992

see Loughborough Echo - Friday 20 May 1994