Detectives in Lawrence inquiry may be charged

FOUR former Scotland Yard detectives could face criminal charges over the bungled original Stephen Lawrence murder investigation, the police watchdog said yesterday.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct ( IOPC) announced that it has asked prosecutors to consider whether there is sufficient evidence to charge the retired officers with misconduct in public office.

Last night Stephen’s campaigning mother Baroness Lawrence piled pressure on the authorities to press charges as she welcomed the decision to refer a file on the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

‘If there is evidence of unlawful conduct those responsible should face the full force of the law and I will be taking very careful notice of what the CPS do and say,’ she said.

All four former Metropolitan Police officers, who deny any wrongdoing, held senior roles in the first few weeks of the widely criticised first investigation into the unprovoked racist murder of Stephen, an 18year-old A-level student, in Eltham, south-east London in April 1993.

As revealed by the Daily Mail last year, ex-Detective Superintendent Ian Crampton, in charge for the first three days of the inquiry, and ex-Detective Chief Superintendent William Ilsley, who supervised him, were interviewed under caution in June last year over claims they committed misconduct in public office.

The two other retired officers – ex-Detective Superintendent Brian Weeden and ex-Detective Inspector Ben Bullock – were questioned later.

The interrogations followed a National Crime Agency investigation into why officers in charge of the first inquiry did not make arrests for two weeks, despite police repeatedly being given the names of suspects.

Two of the original five suspects, named as Stephen’s murderers by the Mail in February 1997, were jailed for life in 2012 following a belated forensic breakthrough.

In September, a six-part Mail+ True Crime podcast series on the Lawrence case revealed new concerns about the running of the initial murder inquiry in 1993.

All four ex- officers strenuously deny committing any offences, with supporters claiming they are victims of a ‘politically motivated witchhunt’. The Police Superintendents’ Association and the Metropolitan Police Federation said: ‘We are exceptionally disappointed with this decision. We wish to make clear that the officers have never been interviewed or accused of any corruption. [ They] have cooperated fully throughout all the inquiries.’

‘Face the full force of the law’