Lawrence suspect’s ‘35 trips abroad in £4m cannabis plot’
AFTER two years on the run in the Spanish sunshine, Stephen Lawrence murder suspect Jamie Acourt finally had his day in court yesterday.
Acourt, 42, fled Britain in 2016 as he faced charges over a £4 million cannabis smuggling plot. He is accused of making more than 30 trips abroad to supply up to four tonnes of the drug between 2014 and 2016.
Last month armed officers pounced on him after he left the Metropolitan Sagrada Familia Gym in Barcelona, less than a month after the 25th anniversary of Stephen’s murder.
Yesterday, he appeared in court for the first time since being extradited to Britain.
Wearing a black T-shirt and skinny black jeans and with his greased hair scraped back in a bun, Acourt ambled into the dock and sat down, with a red paperback novel in his lap. Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that Acourt was at the head of an organised crime group involved in the large-scale supply of cannabis for two years.
Henry Fitch, prosecuting, told the court that Acourt vanished in February 2016 after promising to hand himself into police investigating the allegations.
He was found living in Barcelona’s fashionable and affluent Diagonal Mar district and held on a European Arrest Warrant following a joint operation involving the National Crime Agency, Scotland Yard and Spanish police.
Acourt is said to have protested at the time that officers had the wrong man, claiming he was an innocent Italian tourist.
But yesterday when the father of two, from Bexley, South-East London, appeared in court he confirmed his real name for the Arrest: Jamie Acourt was held by police in Spain last month first time, speaking with a London accent.
He spoke only to confirm his identity and date of birth and to add that he does not have a home address in the UK.
Mr Fitch told the court: ‘ The charge sheet reads that over a period of 25 months there was a conspiracy to supply cannabis, a quality in excess of three to four tonnes, with 34 to 35 trips abroad. The Crown say he was at the head of the conspiracy.’
John Kearney, defending, did not apply for bail and chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot remanded Acourt in custody.
He will appear again in Kingston Crown Court on July 5.
Acourt is one of five youths accused of taking part in the 1993 racist murder of 18- year- old Stephen in Eltham, South London. Acourt has always denied any involvement in the murder.
In 1997, under the banner headline, Murderers, the Daily Mail accused Gary Dobson, Neil Acourt, Jamie Acourt, Luke Knight and David Norris of killing Stephen.
In 2012, following a lengthy campaign for justice led by the Mail, Dobson and Norris were convicted of the teenager’s murder at the Old Bailey and jailed for life.
‘Head of the conspiracy’