unsolved-murders.co.uk
Unsolved Murders
Tags

Lee Brading

Age: 31

Sex: male

Date: 10 Jan 1997

Place: Prince of Wales, Wilesden Lane, Kilburn

Lee Brading was stabbed to death outside the Prince of Wales pub in Wilesden Lane, Kilburn on 10 January 1997.

He was stabbed in the neck and died later the same night.

A man was tried twice for his murder but acquitted. A retrial was ordered following the first trial after it was found that the jury could not agree on a verdict.

The man tried said that it was his friend that had had the knife.

Lee Brading had been involved in a brawl outside the pub in which it was said that the man on trial had stabbed him as well as two others. The fight was said to have been over a race row.

The man tried had been at the pub with his girlfriend and a friend at the time playing pool when the row started outside.

It was said that Lee Brading had not been aware that there was a row going on outside the pub at first but that when he looked out of the window he saw that his friend was involved and he rushed out to help him.

The man that was tried for the murder said that when he heard someone tell his friend, 'What are you doing in our pub? We don't like blacks', that he too rushed out to help and found his friend was fighting with another man and said that he then got into a scuffle himself with another man.

At his trial the man tried said, 'At first I was trying to be the peacemaker and stop the fight. First of all I tried to break up the fight. Then he hit me and I lost my temper. But I was hit and I hit back. I was punched in the face, I punched him three or four times. I was trying to help my friends. After I got punched I gave as good as I got. There were 15 or 20 people outside screaming and shouting. I did not have a knife. I did not stab anyone. No-one could have possibly seen me with the knife'.

The man tried said that after he fled the scene with a friend who he said told him, 'I used something to stab people'.

It was heard that the man who was on trial for the murder fled to Morcambe in Lancashire after the fight where he rented a flat under a false name. He said that he had done so because he was, 'frightened about what had happened'.

After he was arrested on 10 July 1997 the man tried made no comment when interviewed.

It was also heard that the police followed another trail of blood which led to the house of another man that had been involved in the fight who it was heard could have died if they had not arranged for an ambulance to take him to a hospital for medical attention. The man survived.

Another man that was stabbed in the head and back also survived.

Lee Brading had been a grocer.

The Prince of Wales pub was later renamed the Kilburn Arms in 2018.


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