Portrait of the five thugs in the spotlight
DAVID NORRIS, NOW 43
Norris, who has five children from various relationships, was jailed for a minimum of 14 years and three months when convicted of Stephen’s murder in 2012.
The gangster’s son grew up in leafy Chislehurst, miles from his fellow gang members who were raised in the more deprived area of Eltham.
Norris, who has convictions for violence and racism, sought £10,000 in damages after he was beaten up in jail in 2017. In 2002, he was jailed for abusing an off-duty police officer on the same road where he and four others had slain Stephen nine years earlier.
GARY DOBSON, NOW 45
DOBSON is serving a life sentence in HMP Warren Hill, Suffolk, after he and David Norris were convicted of Stephen’s murder in 2012 when new forensic evidence linked them to the killing.
The father of two was jailed for a minimum of 15 years, two months, and his earliest release date could be 2026.
For 20 years he maintained his innocence but effectively admitted his guilt in 2013 when he abandoned an appeal against his conviction.
JAMIE ACOURT, NOW 44
ACOURT is 18 months into a nine-year jail sentence over a £4million cannabis plot having spent years in Spain on the run.
In 2018 he was found in Barcelona, where he had lived for two years as Simon Alfonzo. He was arrested over
Stephen’s murder in 1993 but, like his brother Neil, was never convicted.
At his sentencing for the drug plot in 2018, his barrister claimed the only reason he hid was that he feared the press coverage he would get after years of being dogged by stories about his suspected involvement in the murder.
NEIL ACOURT, NOW 45
NEIL Acourt was released from prison last year after being jailed for his part in a £4million drugs racket.
He was seen just two miles from where Stephen was murdered last April while out on licence, loading tools into a van. Acourt was never convicted of Stephen’s murder but was jailed for 18 months in 2002 for a racist attack on an off-duty black detective then imprisoned in 2017 for his role in the drug-smuggling operation. In 1994 a police surveillance team filmed him making appalling racist remarks.
LUKE KNIGHT, NOW 43
KNIGHT was never convicted as there was insufficient evidence linking him with the murder. He is the only one of the five arrested over Stephen’s killing who does not have a conviction.
He was held in 1993 over the murder but was released. He appeared in court again in 1996 when Stephen’s parents brought a private prosecution, but walked free when it collapsed.