"LOST" EVIDENCE WAS IN THE POLICE STATION

British police too busy drinking cups of tea to look, no doubt

Detectives investigating the murder of a 12-year-old boy in 1967 have arrested two men after the discovery of a box of lost evidence. Keith Lyon was stabbed 11 times in the chest and back as he walked across the Sussex Downs to buy a geometry set. A white-handled steak knife stained with his blood was found days later in school grounds a mile away. Sussex Police began one of its largest murder inquiries, fingerprinting 6,000 schoolboys and visiting more than 80,000 homes. Among those questioned were a group of girls from Roedean School, the boarding school in Brighton.

One theory is that Keith, a talented classical musician, who was wearing his Brighton and Hove Grammar School uniform, was picked on by local youths because of the way he was dressed. Although suspicion fell on a group of local teenagers, no one was charged with killing Keith, whose body was found on a bridle path in an area known as Happy Valley, between the villages of Ovingdean and Woodingdean, near Brighton, East Sussex.

The case has been reviewed over the years as forensic science has improved but police were embarrassed and hampered when the murder weapon and other vital evidence went missing. The case was featured on the BBC television programme Crimewatch in 2000 and 2001. The lost evidence was rediscovered in 2002 when a group of workmen upgrading a sprinkler system found it in a locked basement room at Brighton police station. The box, thought to have been untouched for more than 20 years, contained the murder weapon and a cigarette butt found at the scene, as well as clothing and a blood-stained tissue. All have been analysed for DNA that could lead police to the killer.Sussex Police announced yesterday that a 55-year-old man from Manchester and a 56-year-old man from Brighton were arrested on Thursday on suspicion of murdering Keith.

The suspects have been released on police bail until November 14, a police spokesman said.

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