Inside the Old Bailey TV - Paul Foot - Brian Cathcart - Daily Mail - Macpherson Report - Murders that Shocked Britain TV - ITV News TV - Stephen Lawrence: Time for Justice TV - Independent - Tonight: Stephen Lawrence: 20 Years On TV - Crimes that Shook Britain TV - Dispatches: The Police’s Dirty Secret TV - Doreen Lawrence - The Murder of Stephen Lawrence TV - The Boys Who Killed Stephen Lawrence TV - Catching Britain’s Killers: The Crimes that Changed Us TV - Daily Mail - Stephen: The Murder That Changed a Nation TV - Stephen TV - Cold Case Forensics TV -
There was one case that cast a shadow over British justice for nearly 20 years … There was public outrage. Inside the Old Bailey s1e6, Channel 5 2018
When I left the Mirror all the big campaigns I had been involved in had apparently failed. I used to tell people, ‘Don’t come to me – I always lose.’ Then, one by one, the major cases were reopened and reversed: these included the release of Eddie Browning, who was falsely accused of the murder of Marie Wilkes, in 1994; the quashing of Colin Wallace’s conviction in 1996 and the release of the Bridgewater Four in 1997. So when I was back at Private Eye there was a series of victories in old campaigns, and new campaigns starting. As early as 1994 we raised doubts about the Stephen Lawrence case. In three articles called Sergeants’ Mess we pointed out that Stephen’s murderers were not prosecuted because Duwayne Brooks’s identification of two suspects was rubbished by a police officer who had absolutely no justification in rubbishing him. We also covered the Aitken story and the arms to Iraq affair. Paul Foot, Tribune of the People
Five months after the murder, one of Scotland Yard’s senior detectives, Deputy Assistant Commissioner David Osland, now a Tory councillor in Croydon, circulated a memorandum announcing that he was ‘losing patience’ with Neville and Doreen Lawrence, Stephen’s parents, and suggesting that the police officers engaged in the murder inquiry should sue the couple for libel. The irony in the notion that police officers who had not brought Stephen’s murderers to justice should secure damages from his parents was plainly lost on Mr Osland. He felt he and his force had been entirely justified by a ‘review’ conducted by a senior detective in London, Detective Chief Superintendent Roderick John Barker. Mr Barker’s ‘review’ which flowed from a secret inquiry and was of course not published, had discovered that the police investigation following the Lawrence murder was almost entirely flawless.
This remained the official police view as the long saga of the hunt for Stephen’s murderers unfolded. Weeks after the murder, five men were arrested. Two were identified by a witness to the murder, Stephen’s friend Duwayne Brookes. But Duwayne’s evidence was tainted – by a police officer who was appointed to drive him home and whose account of the conversation he had with Duwayne (which Duwayne hotly contested) persuaded the Crown Prosecution Service to drop the charges.
Angry and disillusioned, the Lawrence family took out a private prosecution against three of the men. The prosecution failed – largely because of the ‘tainting’ of Duwayne Brookes’s evidence by his police escort. An inquest jury proclaimed unequivocally that Stephen had been murdered in an unprovoked racist attack. The Daily Mail (in a sudden fit of conscience brought on by the fact that Neville Lawrence had once painted the house of the Mail editor) named the five original suspects and denounced them as the murderers. In spite of all this, the position five years on is that the murderers of Stephen Lawrence are still at large. Paul Foot, A Groundswell of Anger and Dismay
Shocking almost beyond belief. Certainly almost beyond bearing. Brian Cathcart, author: The Case of Stephen Lawrence
MURDERERS The Mail accuses these men of killing. If we are wrong, let them sue us. The Daily Mail headline 14th February 1997
The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people. The Macpherson Report: The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry
The cruel and brutal murder of a young man made a police force examine its own attitudes to race. Murders that Shocked Britain
At first the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence at a bus stop in Elton south-east London didn’t gain much media attention. However, the failure of police to bring the perpetrators to justice and accusations that race had played a part in the handling of the case would go on to trigger one of the most important legal cases in British history. ibid.
When the suspects were finally charged the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case. ibid.
The family pursued their own private prosecution. ibid.
The Daily Mail published the names and photographs of the five men today. ITV News at Ten
Good evening, a devastating and unprecedented attack on racism in Britain’s police forces was made today in the report into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence. The Inquiry into the way the Metropolitan Police handled its investigation slammed its professional incompetence and poor leadership. It concluded that the country’s entire police service suffered from institutional racism and it condemned the treatment of the Lawrence family and the failure to arrest key suspects. ITV News at Ten
His name represents one of the most shameful episodes of British race relations history. Stephen Lawrence: Time for Justice, BBC 2011
For eighteen years Doreen and Neville Lawrence have struggled to win justice for their murdered son. ibid.
The day that time finally ran out for two of her son’s killers. ibid.
Within hours five boys would emerge as the prime suspectand remain so for the next eighteen years. ibid.
It was the first investigation which was crucial and it was hampered by incompetence and institutional racism from the outset. ibid.
Police failed to provide any medical attention to Stephen. ibid.
Doreen and Neville divorced in 1999. ibid.
The Macpherson Inquiry would become the watershed moment in British race relations history. It exposed the Met ... as institutionally racist. ibid.
Gary Dobson and David Norris have been found guilty of the murder of Stephen Lawrence. ibid.
Stephen Lawrence: watchdog to probe police ‘corruption’: Scotland Yard has called in the police watchdog following allegations that police corruption hampered the original investigation into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence.
The move comes after The Independent published police intelligence reports detailing extensive allegations of corruption against a detective, John Davidson. Following the reports, the Metropolitan Police began a trawl of documents to discover if anything was held back from the 1998 Macpherson Inquiry. Independent 12th May 2012
Tonight: the legacy of Steven Lawrence. But twenty years on how much has really changed? Tonight: Stephen Lawrence – 20 Years On, ITV 2013
Stabbed to death by a gang of white youths in 1993 a Public Inquiry into the crime and the way it was handled branded the Metropolitan Police institutionally racist and called for widespread social reform ... We remember Stephen Lawrence. ibid.
Stephen’s death shocked the nation: both because the brutal manner in which it was committed and the way the police handled the case. ibid.
2007: new forensic evidence in the case. ibid.
Footage of knives and stabbing: 05.12.94 only two were eventually convicted ... A secret recording by police in 1994: ‘I reckon every nigger should be chopped up, mate.’ ibid.
Last year there were over 35,000 racial hate crimes recorded in England and Wales. ibid.
His family are still pursuing full justice for his murder. ibid.
Exactly twenty years ago today teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered in South East London by a racist gang. The compromised investigation to catch the killers would reveal a police force that was institutionally racist. The Lawrence family’ search for justice sent shockwaves to the heart of government. It was a crime that shook Britain. Crimes that Shook Britain: Stephen Lawrence s4e1 *****
In January 2012 ... two men – David Norris and Gary Dobson – were finally convicted of a murder they committed in 1993. ibid.