Man accused of making false claims over 1962 death

Detectives investigating the death of a teacher on Ben Nevis 41 years ago yesterday charged a man with wasting police time.

The death of Howard Rolfe Keeley, 23, who fell 1,000ft down the mountain in February 1962 while leading a party of students on a climbing expedition, was reopened by officers from the Northern Constabulary earlier this month after claims he had been murdered.

More than 40 years after the incident, which had always been seen as an accident, detectives were forced to re-examine the case when a man told police he had seen two pupils from the school push the student teacher to his death. Despite the difficulty in locating witnesses, police managed to interview several people who had been on the school trip and members of the public who remembered being on the mountain at the time of the accident. The two pupils alleged to have pushed Mr Keeley were found and questioned, but insisted they were innocent. Yesterday a spokesman for Northern Constabulary confirmed that the death of the popular teacher, who had been leading students from the Balgowan approved school in Dundee when he fell at a spot known as Corrie Leis, had been a tragic accident and was not in any way suspicious.

As a result of their inquiries the spokesman said a man, 51, has been charged with wasting police time and will be the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal.

"The investigation proved to be difficult and challenging due to the 41-year time gap," said Detective Inspector Gordon Greenlees, who led the inquiry. "However, I am very pleased with the response to my appeal for information. The death is not regarded as suspicious and a report is being submitted to the procurator fiscal in Fort William."

Former pupils now living in Australia, Portugal and South America contacted police after it was reported that police were reopening the investigation. A number of hillwalkers, members of the mountain rescue teams and former police officers were also re-interviewed while neighbours of the Keeley family, who lived in Middlesex at the time, also contacted detectives to pass on information.

Mr Keeley, who was known as Tim to his friends and colleagues, was a student at St Andrews University when he volunteered to help under-privileged children at the school, which closed in 1983.

Seven pupils on the climbing trip at the time of the accident said Mr Keeley had slipped and fallen as he was trying to recover an ice axe dropped by one of the boys.