Report on Abatan police due

Jay Abatan was an accountant with two young children

The family of a man killed in a fight outside a nightclub is to see a report examining the police inquiry into the case.

Jay Abatan, a 42-year-old accountant from Eastbourne, was on a night out in Brighton with his brother Michael when he was attacked in January 1999.

The examination of the way Sussex Police handled the case was prompted by almost 80 complaints from his family.

Two men were charged over the father-of-two's death but the case against them collapsed before it reached court.

Fractured skull

The Avon and Somerset Police report on the Sussex force's investigation, which has taken more than two years to complete, is expected to be presented to Mr Abatan's relatives on Tuesday.

It will then be passed to the Police Complaints Authority (PCA), where it will be considered over the next month.

The PCA will then make recommendations on whether officers involved should face legal or disciplinary action.

The inquiry is one of the largest to be carried out by the PCA.

A row started in a taxi queue outside the Ocean Rooms nightclub

Sussex Police's investigation into Mr Abatan's death has already been the subject of a critical review by Essex Police, which identified more than 50 failings in the way officers conducted their inquiry.

The accountant was attacked in front of his brother after an argument broke out as they and their friends tried to get into a taxi outside the Ocean Rooms nightclub on 23 January 1999.

Believing the taxi to be theirs, Mr Abatan asked two men inside it to get out, while two other men stood beside him.

His brother Michael then saw Jay fall to the floor.

Forensic reports showed he had received at least one blow to his face and a fractured skull from when he hit the pavement. He died five days later.

One of the two men charged over Mr Abatan's death, 41-year-old Graham Curtis, committed suicide in June this year.

After the case against Mr Curtis and another man collapsed, Sussex Police said they were not looking for anyone else over the death.