‘BENT COPS PROTECTED FAMILY OF LAWRENCE MURDERER’
Gangster dad ‘had Old Bill in his pocket’
THE gangster father of one of Stephen Lawrence’s killers used bent detectives to protect himself and his relations from justice, his family have claimed.
Clifford Norris has long been linked to corrupt Met Police officers and was suspected of shielding his son David in the months after the racist murder.
Now Victoria and Naomi Smith, who are related to the Norris family by marriage, have alleged Norris senior interfered in the murder probe.
Doreen Lawrence said: “I thought that after 25 years I could no longer be shocked by the conduct of the Metropolitan Police. However, if it is true they did this, my sense of outrage will have risen to new heights and I will want immediate answers from them as to why it happened and why I was not told.”
The Smiths also claim Norris, jailed for drug smuggling in 1995, used his police contacts when another of his close relatives was a suspect in the 1989 shooting of Tony Smith after a pub fight. No one was charged and the Smiths allege information given to police was then passed to Norris. Tony’s sister Victoria said: “If the police had done their job after my brother was killed, then [Doreen] Lawrence would not have gone through what she went through. “They left Clifford Norris… untouched to use his influence with the police.” Tony and Victoria’s mum Naomi said: “It was known as the cocaine mile – from Bermondsey to Greenwich, Clifford Norris had the Old Bill in his pocket in every nick.” Clifford Norris denies ever having corruptly influenced police officers. His son David was one of two men jailed in 2012 for the racist killing. Stephen, 18, was attacked by at least five white youths in Eltham, South East London, in April 1993. Baroness Lawrence said: “What this shows is that practically everybody seems to have known about this corrupt relationship. It appears to have been an open secret. It therefore beggars belief those investigating corruption in the police did not know.”