Knife attack on Lawrence killer in jail
ONE of the racist killers of Stephen Lawrence has been attacked in prison by blade-wielding inmates.
David Norris, 46, who was jailed for life ten years ago for the murder of the black teenager, needed hospital treatment following the incident.
He was reportedly left bleeding heavily from his face after he was slashed by two men at Dartmoor Prison in Devon.
Norris was said to have been cornered outside his cell just after 8.30am on Sunday. As other inmates kept watch, two burglars wielding self-made knives slashed him from his ‘forehead to his chin’ before prison officers intervened, dragging him to safety as he ‘howled in agony’, a source at Dartmoor told The Sun.
After receiving stitches to his wounds, he was kept in hospital overnight. Doctors say he may be permanently disfigured.
Police are investigating the attack, said to have related to an argument with fellow inmates. The assailants were reportedly placed into segregation.
The assault comes less than two months after the Daily Mail revealed Norris had been caught with a smuggled smartphone, in breach of prison rules. Stephen Lawrence’s father Neville said he was ‘disgusted’ that Norris, who hid the phone inside his body, had been able to send selfies to friends from his cell. He called for prison staff to be sacked.
Norris had also used the phone to send a WhatsApp message including a foul-mouthed rant against Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, who blocked his bid to move to an open prison in May. The phone incident could mean that Norris is transferred to a tougher jail and scupper any hope he had of an early parole.
Five men were initially arrested over the racist murder of 18-yearold Stephen, an A-level student, who was stabbed to death in Eltham, south- east London, in April 1993.
Two – Norris and Gary Dobson, now 47 – were brought to justice following a belated forensic breakthrough. Both were jailed for life in 2012 after being convicted of murder. The judge, who said neither had shown the ‘slightest regret or remorse’, ordered Dobson to serve at least 15 years and Norris at least 14 years before being considered for release. The Prison Service said: ‘A prisoner is being treated in hospital for non-life threatening injuries following an assault.’