Survivor of race attack is ‘ready to talk’
THE MAN who survived the racehate attack in which Stephen Lawrence was murdered has spoken of his wish to talk about the killing to the bereaved parents.
Duwayne Brooks, who is now 43, was with Mr Lawrence in Eltham, south-east London, when he was set upon by a gang, stabbed, and left to die in April 1993. Two of the group of up to six thugs who attacked the teenager and Mr Brooks – simply because they were black – have been convicted of murder, but the rest have evaded justice.
David Norris and Gary Dobson are both serving life sentences, while three other men who have consistently been accused of the killing but never convicted are Jamie Acourt, 41, from Bexley, his brother Neil Acourt, 42, who uses his mother’s maiden name Stuart, and Luke Knight, 41, both from Eltham.
Days before the 25th anniversary of the killing, which saw the original investigation plagued by claims of corruption and institutional racism in the police, Mr Brooks said he is ready to break his silence and talk about the events of April 22, 1993, to Neville and Doreen Lawrence face to face.
He said: “To sit down with your best friend’s parents and say, ‘This is what they did to him’. It’s difficult. I mean both parents know what happened but to sit there and say, ‘I was unable to help him, to save him, to stop it.’
“How do you say that to someone’s parents? How do you tell them what happened to their son, without being able to say you tried to save his life?”
Neville Lawrence, 76, spoke of how he feels ready to forgive those who killed his first son.
He said: “The fact that I had to lose my first child has been devastating. I can’t begin to explain the pain and the anguish me and my family have suffered over the past 25 years. So, in order to be Christian, I decided I’m going to forgive all these people involved in my son’s murder.”