‘I’ll pursue Lawrence killers as long as I live’

CRESSIDA Dick says she will fight to bring all the killers of Stephen Lawrence to justice for ‘as long as I am alive’.

The new Scotland Yard commissioner said there was a ‘huge public interest’ in seeing the remaining suspects jailed.

After years of working alongside Stephen’s parents, Doreen and Neville, Miss Dick said she was looking forward to hearing details of the progress of the inquiry.

‘I was very pleased that we got the convictions that we did eventually – far too late, of course. I will remain committed as long as I am alive,’ she said.

Miss Dick has spent more than 13 years as the most senior officer responsible for the investigation into the 1993 attack.

Stephen, 18, was stabbed to death by a racist mob as he waited with a friend at a bus stop in Eltham, south- east London. Failures by police and the criminal justice system let the killers escape unpunished and led to the Daily Mail accusing five men of murder 20 years ago.

David Norris, 40, and Gary Dobson, 41, were convicted in 2012 after a forensic breakthrough. But three other gang members – Neil Acourt, 41, his brother Jamie, 40, and Luke Knight, 40 – have never been successfully put on trial.

Miss Dick added: ‘I haven’t had a briefing on the case. I will. There will be questions at some stage of whether, if we haven’t secured a conviction, it is time to pause and wait.

‘This is a crime of huge public interest and will be until those who we believe to be the other offenders have been convicted.’

Neil Acourt was jailed for more than six years in February for his role in a £4million drugs racket. Norris is suing the Government for £10,000 after he was beaten up in prison. He claims the authorities failed in their duty to protect him.