Peer's son dies in Kenyan custody

• Tweet

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 26 (UPI) -- The mother of a British man who died in police custody in Kenya says her son remained handcuffed to a hospital bed after he was unconscious.

Two independent pathologists have found Alexander Monson, 28, the only son of Nicholas, Baron Monson, died of internal bleeding after being hit on the head, The Daily Telegraph reported. Kenyan police say Monson, who had been arrested on a drug charge, died from smoking a powerful Kenyan variety of marijuana known as bhang.

Hilary Monson, Alexander's mother, said she was with her son when he died.

"He was chained to the bed the whole time, even as he lay there dying," she told the Telegraph. "It was only when he had turned blue and the doctors were trying finally to resuscitate him that the police agreed to release him from the handcuffs."

Hilary Monson, who is divorced from Lord Monson, lives at Diani on the Kenyan coast. Her son, who attended the prestigious English school Marlborough, had been living with her for four years, and was trying to build bamboo and fish-smoking businesses.

"I continue to deny that my officers were in anyway involved in that man's death," Richard Muguai, Kwale district chief of police, told the Telegraph. "But if any future investigations find they were involved I will personally charge them with murder."