A CANDLELIT vigil was held outside New Scotland Yard for West Drayton student Ricky Reel, who died in 1997.

The vigil was attended by around 30 people and remembered Ricky, who went missing after a night out in Kingston.

His mother, Sukhdev Reel, is calling for a public apology from the Met Police over revelations that she was spied on by police as she campaigned for her son’s death to be treated as a murder.

“They told me they didn’t have the resources to investigate Ricky’s death and then I find out they have the resources to spy on me,” she said.

“Why? I am not a criminal. I want the commissioner to apologise in public. Nothing else will do.”

Brunel University student Ricky Reel was last seen on October 15 1997, before his body was found in the Thames six days later.

Ricky and his friends were the victims of racist abuse from two white men earlier that night.

An inquest found there was insufficient evidence to determine how he died.

Mrs Reel discovered in July that police, working for the Special Demonstration Squad, spied on her in 1998.

The SDS also spied on the family of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Her demand for a public apology has been supported by over 77,000 on campaigns website Change.org.

A Met spokesperson said: “Following concerns raised by the family in the media in July, we wrote to their legal representatives offering to meet with them to discuss the issues they raised.”

Denis Fernando, of Stand Up to Racism, which is supporting Mrs Reel, called the revelations that she was spied on “grotesque beyond measure.”

He said: “This will only confirm the lack of confidence in the police that the family and many in the wider black communities have, due to institutional racism.”