Lawrence murder suspect facing prison
Jamie Acourt, one of five men named as suspects in the Stephen Lawrence murder 25 years ago, faces jail today after admitting being a kingpin in a £4million conspiracy to ferry cannabis from London to the North East. Acourt was arrested two years after going on the run to Spain.
TWENTY-FIVE years after he was named as a suspect in the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, Jamie Acourt is facing jail today.
Acourt, 42, from Eltham, south-east London, pleaded guilty to drug offences at Kingston Crown Court yesterday, admitting his role as a kingpin in a two-year conspiracy to sell £4million of cannabis.
Neil Acourt, his 43-year-old brother, has already been jailed for more than six years over the cannabis plot.
Jamie Acourt had spent more than two years on the run until his arrest in May, living in Spain under the alias “Simon Alfonzo”.
Prosecutors believe the brothers were ringleaders and that they enlisted family members to the scheme that saw drugs transported between London and South Shields, Tyne and Wear.
Both men were arrested after the racist stabbing of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence by a gang of five white men in Eltham, south-east London, in 1993, but have always denied involvement.
Those who knew Jamie Acourt at the time of the murder remember a violent and aggressive racist who had earned a fearsome reputation by his mid teens.
His conviction for drug offences means that Luke Knight is the only one of the original five suspects in the Lawrence murder who is not behind bars.
Knight was arrested in 1993 but charges were later dropped and a bid to prosecute him privately in 1996 failed. He denies any involvement. Gary Dobson and David Norris were convicted of murder in 2012 and jailed for life.
Jurors were earlier told of Jamie Acourt’s historical allegation and warned they should consider him solely on the trial’s evidence.
Appearing in court with a beard and his hair in a bun, Jamie Acourt previously denied conspiracy to supply a Class B drug between January 2014 and February 2016, but changed his plea following the end of the prosecution’s case opening on the basis that he was only involved in the conspiracy to supply between Jan 1 2014 and May 2 2015.
Acourt fled the country after police raided a home he lived in with his partner and their two children in Bexley, south-east London, in February 2016.
He was arrested by armed officers as he left a gym in Barcelona on May 4 2018 and extradited back to Britain.
His brother had been sentenced to six years and three months’ imprisonment in February last year over the same conspiracy.
Jailing him, Recorder Paul Clements said the plot would “have kept the people of the Newcastle area in spliffs for many a long day”. It involved dozens of 600-mile round trips from London to South Shields, driving drugs up and bringing back cash.
Det Chief Insp Mark Bedford of the Met’s Organised Crime Command, said the conviction was “the culmination of several years of complex investigation by Met detectives”. He said: “Diligent policing work has … disbanded a drugs network valued around £4million.” A total of seven men have now been convicted or found guilty over the conspiracy. They include the stepfather of Acourt’s partner, Lee Birks, 57, of Orpington, south-east London, and Neil Acourt’s 65-year-old father-in-law, Jack Vose, of Bexley, south-east London.
In 2012, Dobson and Norris were convicted of murdering Mr Lawrence and jailed for life. Both Acourts were arrested shortly after the murder but were not convicted.
Jamie Acourt has previous convictions for possession of cannabis and theft, and has spent time in a young offender institution, but this is the first time he is set to face custody. He will be sentenced for the drugs charge today.