Mother of Stephen Lawrence calls for end to hunt

THE mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has called for the police to end their 25-year investigation into his death.

Scotland Yard says the inquiry into the racially motivated killing remains “in an active phase”, but his mother, Doreen Lawrence, said she suspects detectives have run out of new leads.

The Labour peer has called on the force to “be honest” about the likelihood of any further suspects involved in her son’s murder being brought to justice. Scotland Yard has spent over £50million in the hunt for the 18-yearold’s remaining killers.

Detectives believe Mr Lawrence was stabbed to death by a group of up to six white men in the unprovoked racist attack as he waited at a bus stop with a friend in Eltham, south-east London.

But just two men have been jailed for the 1993 killing, when in 2012, Gary Dobson and David Norris were found guilty of murder under joint enterprise and jailed for life.

Baroness Lawrence said she believes the Met is concerned about her public reaction should they decide to close the case. “They say they’re carrying on the investigation, but carrying on doing what? If they’ve come to the end, they should be honest – say they’ve come to an end and stop. I think they’re carrying on pretending everything’s fine because they don’t want to hear what I’ll say if it is stopped,” she said.

Failures in the police response to Mr Lawrence’s murder led to accusations of institutional racism in the force. In 1996, a murder trial at the Old Bailey against Dobson and two other defendants collapsed after identification evidence was ruled inadmissible.

Following a 1997 inquest, a jury concluded Mr Lawrence was “unlawfully killed by five white youths”. And in 1999 findings of a judicial inquiry by Sir William Macpherson accused the Met of “racism, professional incompetence and bad leadership”.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Lady Lawrence also suggested that she was ready to begin to move on from her tireless pursuit of justice for her son.

She said: “I can’t keep doing this. I just want time for me, time to reflect. I don’t think I’ve even completely grieved for Stephen. He’d have been 43, a grown man with a family.”

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “The Met continues to hold regular meetings to update the family.”