Ali Babitu Kololo (second from right) is marched through the streets of Lamu Town to his court hearing in September 2011 - Will Wintercross

Scotland Yard has been accused of stonewalling a compensation claim by a Kenyan wrongly sentenced to death over the murder of a British tourist.

Former cabinet minister Sir Andrew Mitchell has taken up the case of Ali Kololo, a 45-year-old honey gatherer and woodcutter, who is suing the Metropolitan Police after spending more than a decade on death row for a crime he did not commit. 

His conviction was overturned by Kenya’s high court after he served 11 years in prison. Mr Kololo was the only suspect prosecuted over the murder of publishing executive David Tebbutt and the kidnapping of his wife, Judith, on a remote Kenyan island resort in 2011. Tebbutt was shot dead. His wife was taken into Somalia and released after their son, Ollie, paid a ransom of £800,000 six months later.

Sir Andrew has accused the Met of an apparent “cover-up” for refusing to reveal how much it has spent fighting the Kenyan’s claim, failing to offer an apology to Mr Kololo and his family and “stonewalling” questions over how it has handled the case.

“Mr Kololo has been treated disgracefully,” he told The Telegraph.

“My view on the Met’s performance is unprintable; they have consistently refused to give Parliament the legitimate answers we seek or render themselves remotely accountable to public scrutiny.” 

Sir Andrew was previously involved in a legal battle with the Met Police over a political scandal dubbed Plebgate, in which three officers give false evidence against him over an altercation between him and police at the entrance to Downing Street. One officer was subsequently jailed for a year.

Mr Kololo, who is illiterate, says he was tortured by the Kenyan police and forced to “confess” to having led pirates to the only occupied banda (bungalow) on the beach where they murdered Mr Tebbutt and abducted his wife. The Kenyan, who had previously worked at the resort cutting the grass, was arrested within 24 hours.

The Kenyan investigation was supported by a team of officers from the Met, who visited the country, led by Det Ch Insp Neil Hibberd.

At Mr Kololo’s trial in 2013, Mr Hibberd was a key prosecution witness and gave evidence linking him to the murder, highlighting footprints left at the scene from shoes he claimed that Mr Kololo was wearing.

However, a subsequent report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found Mr Hibberd omitted “significant forensic evidence”. This showed that a Met analysis of a faint footprint on a sandy beach was inconclusive, the shoes did not fit Mr Kololo when he tried them on in court and he was barefoot on the day.

The IOPC investigation only concluded in 2022 after Mr Hibberd had retired from the Met in 2017 but it found that, had he been serving, he would have had a “case to answer for gross misconduct”.

Mrs Tebbutt has said she believes Mr Kololo was innocent and was scapegoated by Scotland Yard. 

“The people that took me are still out there … free. Whereas Mr Kololo, who I believe didn’t have anything to do with the death or my abduction, has been in prison for the last 11 years,” she said.

Mr Hibberd is understood to deny any allegation of wrongdoing and believes the IOPC report has misrepresented his role in the investigation. He “absolutely disagrees with the [IOPC] findings”, said his lawyer.

Mr Kololo, who is backed by the charity Reprieve, is suing the Met for misfeasance in public office, arguing that the force acted unlawfully to secure his conviction.

The Met is contesting the Kenyan’s claim, which his legal team say has forced them to go to court to secure disclosure of documents on the Met’s role in the case that he needs for his claim. It mirrors similar legal action Reprieve took a decade ago, which extracted details of the Met’s forensic analysis of the footprint.

In correspondence seen by The Telegraph, Sir Andrew has written to Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, seeking a meeting and demanding to know how much the Met has spent defending Mr Kololo’s claim and “what consideration it has given” to compensating him and offering a formal apology.

He also maintains the Met could have stopped Mr Hibberd retiring on the basis that he was under investigation by the IOPC so that it could pursue disciplinary action against him.

The Met says it can bring no disciplinary proceedings against Mr Hibberd because he retired before new regulations came into force in December 2017 allowing action to be taken against former officers. It also says there is “no mechanism” by which it can prevent the retirement of a serving officer.

It also says it cannot reveal how much it has spent on the civil claim as it would “likely prejudice the legal position of both parties in the civil claim”. 

However, in a letter to Asst Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of counter-terrorism, Sir Andrew said the refusal of a meeting “combined with your ongoing evasion of basic questions about public expenditure suggests a concerning pattern of stonewalling legitimate parliamentary scrutiny”.

Met accused of ‘deflection’ and ‘obfuscation’

He continued: “Your assertion that the Met has been ‘transparent’ in this matter is contradicted by your own refusal to answer direct questions about costs to the taxpayer. Frankly, it looks like a cover-up.

“When the Home Office directed me to the Met for answers about public expenditure on this case, I reasonably expected co-operation, not obstruction. 

“The more you and your colleagues deflect and obfuscate, the greater the suspicion that a huge amount of money is being wasted by the Met defending this case.”

In his reply, Mr Taylor, however, maintained that disclosing the costs would prejudice the legal action. “I reject the suggestion that this constitutes an evasive or obfuscatory position since there are clear operational, policy and legal restrictions within which we are required to operate,” he said.

A Met Police spokesman said: “Due to these restrictions, and the consequent paucity of information that I would be able to disclose to you, I do not believe a meeting would be an effective use of your time.”

“We can confirm that we previously received a civil claim relating to this matter, which is ongoing, so we will not be commenting on that any further at this time.

“As we have previously stated, our thoughts are with Mr Kololo, Mrs Tebbutt, her family and all those who have been affected by this terrible crime. 

“The Metropolitan Police remains committed to supporting the Kenyan authorities in any way that may be possible, in order to get justice for Mrs Tebbutt and her late husband.”