Over 27 agonising years, how the story unfolded
APRIL 22, 1993: Stephen Lawrence is stabbed to death as he waits at a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London.
MAY-JUNE, 1993: Neil Acourt, Jamie Acourt, Gary Dobson, Luke Knight and David Norris are arrested in connection with his murder.
JULY 1993: Crown Prosecution Service formally discontinues the prosecution.
DECEMBER 1993: Southwark coroner Sir Montague Levine halts an inquest into Mr Lawrence’s death after the family’s barrister, Michael Mansfield QC, says there is new evidence in the case.
APRIL 1994: The CPS says the new evidence is insufficient to support murder charges.
SEPTEMBER 1994: The Lawrence family begins a private prosecution against Neil Acourt, Mr Knight and Dobson.
DECEMBER 1994: Secret video evidence is filmed showing Dobson and Norris making obscene racist remarks.
APRIL 1996: The private prosecution against Neil Acourt, Mr Knight and Dobson begins at the Old Bailey but collapses after identification evidence is ruled inadmissible. The three are acquitted.
FEBRUARY 1997: An inquest jury finds that Stephen was ‘unlawfully killed by five white youths’. The Daily Mail runs a front page story with pictures of the suspects under the headline ‘Murderers’.
DECEMBER 1997: A Police Complaints Authority report on the original police investigation of Stephen’s murder identifies ‘significant weaknesses, omissions and lost opportunities’.
FEBRUARY 1999: The Macpherson Report finds the police guilty of mistakes and ‘institutional racism.’ It also suggested a rethink of the principle of ‘double jeopardy’ laws.
Lies, spies, cover-ups and corruption . . . sickening extent of Stephen’s betrayal by the police is exposed
APRIL 1999: Friday, M arch 7, 2014 The five arrested in 1993 deny involvement in a TV interview.
SEPTEMBER 2002: Norris and Neil Acourt are jailed for 18 months for a racist attack on off-duty policeman Gareth Reid.
MAY 2004: The CPS announces there is ‘insufficient evidence’ to prosecute anyone for the murder.
APRIL 2005: Double jeopardy is scrapped if there is new evidence.
MAY 2011: The Court of Appeal agrees that Dobson’s 1996 murder acquittal can be quashed.
NOVEMBER 2011: The trial of Dobson and Norris for Stephen’s murder begins.
JANUARY 2012: Dobson and Norris are found guilty of murder at Old Bailey.
MARCH 2013: A review by Mark Ellison QC finds that a Met ‘spy’ was working within the ‘Lawrence family camp’ during the course of the judicial inquiry into matters arising from his death.
MARCH 2015: Then-home secretary Theresa May launches an inquiry into undercover policing following the report of the Ellison Inquiry.
OCTOBER 2015: The National Crime Agency announces that the Met are being investigated for alleged corruption over their initial handling of the case.
APRIL 2018: Scotland Yard admits it has no new lines of inquiry in the investigation into Stephen’s murder.
APRIL 2019: Then-prime minister Theresa May marks the first Stephen Lawrence Day.
YESTERDAY: The Met announces that there are no further lines of inquiry in the murder probe.