Acourt ‘was tipped off that cops were closing in on him’

STEPHEN Lawrence murder suspect Jamie Acourt told pals he knew the net was closing in on him in the days before his drugs arrest, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.

A source said associates had told him the Spanish police were on his tail after finding some of his old haunts, including a bolthole near millionaire’s play- ground Marbella. He was caught in Barcelona last Friday after two years on the run – wanted for being a major player in a cannabis ring. The source added: “Jamie was panicking. He realised the police had made a major breakthrough.” Acourt, 41, from South East London, was as one of five suspects quizzed over the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, 18, in 1993, but was never charged.