Kurt Cobain’s daughter Frances has prevailed in a legal battle to keep photographs taken at the scene of her father’s death sealed from the public, following an application from a conspiracy theorist to have them released.

The Nirvana frontman’s death in April 1994 was ruled officially as suicide, but conspiracy theorists have always abounded that foul play was involved. In 2014, one such theorist, Richard Lee, sued the city of Seattle over the sealed status of images taken at the scene, believing that Cobain was killed by government officials.

Court documents state that the photographs depict “Cobain’s body as it lay in the family residence after he was shot in the head”, according to a report by The Blast on Monday (May 14th).

Courtney Love Frances Bean CobainCourtney Love and Frances Bean Cobain in 2017

However, the Seattle court of appeals ruled in favour of Frances Bean Cobain and her mother, Courtney Love, who subsequently sought a ruling against Lee’s attempt and “permanently enjoining the City from disclosing, disseminating, releasing, or distributing any death-scene photographs not previously disclosed.”

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This particular case has a lot of back-story – Lee lost his original lawsuit against the city of Seattle concerning the photographs in 2015, and filed an appeal last year to have that overturned, prompting Cobain’s next of kin to have the issue settled once and for all.

Two years ago, Hole frontwoman and Cobain’s widow Courtney Love gave a statement accusing Lee of trying to exploit Cobain’s death, which he claims to have been investigating for more than 23 years.

She claimed that Lee “stalked and harassed me, my family and my friends for many, many years… On one particular occasion, Mr Lee even filmed himself chasing a limousine for several miles that he thought I was a passenger in. Mr Lee’s actions make me fear for my safety.”

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