A look back on the Stephen Lawrence murder leaves a bad taste in the mouth

The Mail on Sunday has been serialising a book, written by Duwayne Brooks and the journalist Simon Hattenstone, about the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Brooks was with Stephen on that fateful evening ten years ago when he was ambushed by white racists and stabbed to death.

It contains implicit and, I think, gratuitous criticism of Stephen's parents. For example, Doreen Lawrence runs a charity offering scholarships to young black students who wish to pursue a career in architecture - that was Stephen's choice of profession. Brooks and Hattenstone, however, argue that Stephen's parents misread him: he was not that interested in architecture, and had merely done work experience at an architect's office. Yet Stephen's choice of that office was freely his; he could have opted for a chef's kitchen or the local vicarage.

The writers also say that Stephen was repeatedly locked out for breaking a curfew. It was because of this, say Brooks and Hattenstone, that young Stephen took that particular route home in a mad dash to be back on time. Yet this locking out business is strenuously denied by Doreen Lawrence, and has not been corroborated by anyone else. We cannot accept what Brooks says without question because inconsistencies in his evidence, no doubt unintentional, led to the collapse of the private prosecution of the alleged murderers.

Most West Indian parents fear racial attacks on their children - by police as well as white men generally. Like myself and others, they kept a beady eye on their boy as he walked the streets of one of the most racist areas of London.

As a West Indian parent of three boys (the youngest is 18) this book hurts me, so it must be deeply distressing to the Lawrences. They fought a dignified and a largely successful campaign on racism that led to the Macpherson report and its many recommendations.

This book sullies their achievements and it adds nothing to the powerful people's movement which supported every effort to bring the murderers to justice. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

I hope that the authors will donate at least some of whatever money they were paid for the serialisation to the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.

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