R.I.P JUSTICE
As Met shuts Lawrence murder file, his mother’s verdict: They have given up
STEPHEN Lawrence’s mother accused Scotland Yard of giving up on her son last night after the force effectively conceded defeat in its quest to nail all of his racist killers.
In a carefully-worded statement 27 years after the teenager was murdered, Met chief Dame Cressida Dick said the inquiry had run out of leads.
She announced the inquiry – which has cost tens of millions of pounds – had entered an ‘inactive phase’.
Although two men were convicted of killing Stephen in 2012, the remainder of a gang of at least five white youths involved in the attack are now unlikely to ever face prosecution.
Last night, the teenager’s parents expressed frustration that three of their son’s murderers may never be held responsible.
Stephen’s mother Baroness Doreen Lawrence said she was ‘truly disappointed that those others who were equally responsible for my son’s racist killing may not be brought to justice’.
Accusing the Met of giving up on her son, she added: ‘I am very sad that a line has now been drawn into the investigation and that it is now in an ‘inactive’ phase.
‘Despite this, I would still urge anyone who has any information that could help me get all of Stephen’s killers convicted, to come forward. It is never too late to give a mother justice for the murder of her son. Whilst the Metropolitan police have given up, I never will.’
Her former husband, Neville Lawrence, said he was ‘disappointed but not surprised’ by the Met statement. He said that although the Met had closed the case, ‘the case can never be closed for me’.
‘I had hoped that the conviction of two of the killers in 2012 would lead to new evidence coming to light and a prosecution of the other suspects,’ he said. ‘This has unfortunately not happened and over the last few years I have had to come to terms with the reality that some of the killers of Stephen may never be brought to justice for what they did.’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the decision to shelve the Lawrence murder investigation as ‘upsetting’. ‘I have just called Doreen Lawrence following the upsetting decision from the Metropolitan police to close Stephen’s case,’ the former director of public prosecutions, tweeted. ‘We worked together on her son’s case and I know she will never rest in her fight for justice for Stephen, and she will also never rest in her fight for equality across society – and we will fight with her every step of the way.’
Stephen, an 18-year-old A-level student, was murdered in eltham, south-east London, in April 1993.
However, a bungled police inquiry meant that no arrests were made for two weeks after his death.
In February 1997, the Daily Mail took the unprecedented step of naming the five suspects – Gary Dobson, David Norris and three others – as Stephen’s killers.
Under the front-page headline ‘Murderers’, we challenged the gang to sue. But they never did
and former Labour home secretary Jack Straw has since stated that the Mail’s front page and subsequent ‘Justice for Stephen’ campaign played a crucial role in his decision to set up the Macpherson public inquiry into botched handling of the case, which branded the Met ‘institutionally racist’.
Following a DNA breakthrough, Dobson, now 45, and Norris, now 43, were found guilty in 2012 of stabbing the teenager. They had been named as suspects within 48 hours of the stabbing in April 1993. No others were ever charged.
In her statement yesterday, Dame Cressida said she was sad the force had been ‘unable to secure any further convictions for Stephen, his family and friends’. ‘The investigation has now moved to an “inactive” phase, but I have given Stephen’s family the assurance that we will continue to deal with any new information that comes to light,’ she said. ‘The investigation will also be periodically reviewed for any further investigative opportunities which may arise, for example with advances in technology.’
The latest phase of the investigation into Stephen’s murder began in 2014, with a new senior detective taking over as the lead officer from Clive Driscoll, the highly-respected officer who oversaw the successful prosecution of Dobson and Norris.
Since then, more than 240 new witness statements have been taken. The Met also examined a woman’s DNA obtained from a bag strap discarded at the scene of the murder. Despite a major appeal for information, that woman has not been identified.
Officers also sought to identify a man who had been near the murder scene wearing a jacket with a distinctive V-shaped emblem.
A third line of inquiry had been to track down a man who had called the BBC’s Crimewatch programme in 2013 to say he had information about the attack.
The Met said it had created more than 1,880 documents and messages and raised over 1,580 actions to work through. ‘The appeal generated more than 40 lines of enquiry for the investigation team,’ the Met said.
‘Despite exhaustive efforts, officers were unable to trace the individuals.’