Looking from ‘a different angle’ helped find vital Lawrence evidence
THE vital piece of evidence which helped convict two of Stephen Lawrence’s killers was discovered due to the tenacity of the experts who were “clever” and “imaginative enough to find it”, a forensic scientist on the case has said.
Professor Angela Gallop returned to the Stephen Lawrence investigation in 2006 after having first reviewed the forensic evidence in the racehate case in 1995.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs the key information was found during her team’s second investigation because they looked at the evidence “from a different angle” to see if anything had been missed during the original investigation.
She told the programme that every contact leaves something. “You have just got to be clever enough and careful enough to find it and imaginative enough to find it,” she said.
Five men had been arrested over the racist murder of 18-yearold Mr Lawrence, who was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack in Eltham, southeast London, on April 22 1993.
It took until 2012 before two men, David Norris and Gary Dobson, were given life sentences after being found guilty of murder.
Prof Gallop recalled that good scientists had looked for blood on the suspects’ clothing but had not found it.
Taking a different approach saw them examine the packaging in which some of the suspects’ clothing had been stored since the killing and, thanks to the advances in forensic technology, they discovered a microscopic flake of blood in the textile fibres of one of the suspects’ jackets.
The blood matched Mr Lawrence’s DNA.
The scientists then examined the jacket for an original blood stain.
Prof Gallop recalled that inside the packaging, scientists had found a “tiny flake of blood with two fibres encased in it, so obviously there at the time the blood was wet”. She added: “Then we thought if we have found it in the packaging, it must be the remains of an original blood stain somewhere on the garment and we kept missing it.
“That’s when we got out a microscope and went over the whole thing in detail.”
This detailed search was “very difficult” and “exhausting” because the white and black fibres on the garment meant that overall it looked grey.
She added: “Eventually, inside the back of the neck, which is sort of where you might expect to find a tiny spot of blood from an attack like that, we found the remains of a spot of blood.
“We tested it and it contained Stephen’s DNA and so eventually we got there.”
Prof Gallop has attended two memorial services for Mr Lawrence and it has left her with the feeling that “things are not, or certainly weren’t, fair”.
She was also struck by the eloquent tribute made by Mr Lawrence’s bother Stuart, as he talked about him as “this young lad who had so much to look forward to and was clearly such a nice boy, that was just heartbreaking really.”
Mr Lawrence’s killing led to the landmark Macpherson report, published in February 1999, that set out wide-ranging proposals for reform after it found the Metropolitan Police investigation into the murder had failed in part due to “institutional racism”.
Prof Gallop told the programme: “This case wasn’t investigated as thoroughly as I would like to think it would be today.
“I think the McPherson inquiry went into that in great detail and talked in particular about how police culture had to change and I think I felt very strongly about that.”
Over the course of her 50-year career, the Oxford-born scientist has been known for going the extra mile.
Desert Island Discs airs at 11.15am today on BBC Radio 4 and on BBC Sounds.