Police review Rolling Stone Brian Jones death

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209906/Police-review-Rolling-Stone-Brian-Jones-death-MoS-reveals-new-evidence.html

Police review Rolling Stone Brian Jones death after MoS reveals new evidence
Christopher Leake
29th August 2009

Police are reviewing the death of Rolling Stone Brian Jones – 40 years after his body was found at the bottom of a swimming pool.

The dramatic move by Sussex Police follows new evidence unearthed by The Mail on Sunday about the mysterious death of the rock legend which suggests he was murdered by his minder.

Officially, Jones drowned, aged 27, in his pool at Cotchford Farm, Hartfield, East Sussex, on July 2, 1969, while under the influence of drink and drugs.

An inquest recorded a verdict of death by misadventure, even though the post-mortem report said there were no illegal drugs in the star’s body, just the equivalent of three-and-a-half pints of beer.

But now, a review officer based at Sussex Police CID headquarters has been assigned to trawl through 600 documents handed over by investigative journalist Scott Jones, who undertook a four-year probe into the guitarist’s death.

The new evidence was compiled by Mr Jones – no relation to the dead Stone – and disclosed by this newspaper last November.

The move follows a three-and-a-half-hour meeting Mr Jones had with senior Sussex police officers last month when they discussed testimony from witnesses at the house on the night Jones died.

Detectives are studying previously unseen files released by the Public Records Office and may launch a new investigation if they believe there is enough new evidence.

This marks a U-turn by Sussex Police, who until now have rejected requests to reopen the case.

Scott Jones said last night: ‘There is no time limit on the review. But after 40 years of mystery, anyone who values Brian’s reputation will be happy to wait for the outcome.’

Last November, we revealed fresh evidence from nurse Janet Lawson, who found Jones’s body. She said she saw his minder, Frank Thorogood, jump into the pool and ‘do something to Brian’. She was convinced he had killed Jones.

Thorogood died in 1994. Her claims are supported by PC Albert Evans, the first officer on the scene, who spoke to all the witnesses in the hours after Jones’s death and concluded he had died as a result of a fight with Thorogood.

New evidence also emerged about the original investigation by Detective Chief Inspector Bob Marshall, which shows that three unidentified witnesses were allowed to leave the scene without being interviewed.

Finally, police files have revealed how taxi driver Joan Fitzsimons, a former girlfriend of Thorogood, was attacked and left for dead three weeks after Brian Jones died. According to the official records, Ms Fitzsimons was planning to speak to the media about Jones’s death.

Thorogood was said to have been desperately searching for Ms Fitzsimons in the weeks before the attack because, the files reveal, she knew too much about the band. She died in 2002.