Stephen Lawrence's killers found guilty

Gary Dobson and David Norris, two of the original suspects in the racist murder, finally found guilt

By Samira Shackle Published 03 January 2012

Two men have been convicted of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, 18 years after the black teenager was stabbed to death by a white gang.

Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, were found guilty of murder today by a jury at the Old Bailey following a seven week trial.

The men were part of a gang who stabbed Lawrence, 18, as he waited for a bus in Eltham, south-east London, in April 1993. Dobson and Norris were arrested two weeks after the murder but the cases against them were dropped due to police failings and because some witnesses were too afraid to give evidence.

Dobson and two other men were later acquitted of murder during a private prosecution brought by Lawrence's parents.

The murder led to a public inquiry which famously revealed a culture of "institutionalised racism" at the Metropolitan police.

New scientific evidence, uncovered during a cold case review which used much more rigorous testing of the clothing of the five main suspects and of Lawrence, tied Dobson and Norris to the murder and disproved their claims that they were not present during the attack.

Prosecutor Mark Ellison QC said: "The only discernible reason for the attack was the colour of his skin. The way in which the attack was executed indicates that this group were a group of like-minded young, white men who acted together and reacted together. They shared the same racial animosity and motivation."

Detectives say that there are nine other suspects who have not been eliminated from the investigation. However, there is insufficient evidence to charge them.

UPDATE 4th Jan:

The two killers have been sentenced.

Gary Dobson must serve a minimum of 15 years and two months before he is eligible for parole.

David Norris must serve a minimum of 14 years and three months before he is eligible for parole.

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7 comments

Tue, 2012-01-10 09:21 — Dave (not verified)

The two men found guilty of Stephen Lawrence’s murder, may be guilty, but they were not convicted on the evidence, because there was none.

The evidence presented to court amounted to no more than two microscopic fibres on both suspects clothing and a microscopic blood spot on one suspects clothing.

The fibres, taken from the suspects clothing, appeared the same as fibres taken from clothing worn by Stephen Lawrence.

This does not prove they came from Lawrence’s clothing, but only from similar material.

The blood-spot found on Gary Dobson’s clothing was smaller than a full (.) stop and the court was told this was Lawrence’s blood.

However could this be the result of contamination after the suspects clothing had been stored in the same room as the victims clothing, for many years?

Also DNA cannot be taken from red blood cells, only white cells. Therefore is it possible for Lawrence’s DNA to be extracted from a blood spot smaller than a full (.) stop?

In the absence of any other identification, it seems perverse that the jury returned a guilty verdict for murder.

Mon, 2012-01-09 16:33 — john woods (not verified)

The deaths of Richard Everitt and Stephen Lawrence:

compare and contrast

Robert Henderson

The Death of Richard Everitt (see below) is an article I wrote in 1994. Compare and contrast the elite response to his death and that of Stephen Lawrence.

Richard was knifed to death by an Asian gang approximately 300 yards from my front door. The gang was large, perhaps as many as 15 members. The gang was known as the Drummond Street Posse and had gone out that night specifically looking for a “white boy” to attack because they felt they had been “wronged” by a white boy (http://www.mamaa.org/infalre.html).

The gang were arrested the same night for a separate incident and blood was found on 19-year-old Badrul Miah. This turned out to be a match for that of Richard. Miah, later boasted that he had “stabbed up some white boy”. http://www.mirror.co.uk/life-style/kids-and-family/2008/10/1...

After nine months the police had arrested 11 people in connection with the murder. The 11 dropped to six and after a committal hearing the number fell to 3. Eventually only two came to trial, Badrul Miah and Showkat Akbar. Akbar was found guilty of violent disorder and sentenced to three years, of which he served 18 months. Miah was sentenced to life but let out on licence after 11 years despite the trial judge describing it as an unprovoked racist attack (see Mirror link above).

The parents of Richard suffered beyond the loss of their child: “After the trial Mandy and Norman tried to move on but were the victims of threats and racial abuse. They had to leave the home where they raised their children and move out of London to Essex.” (http://www.mamaa.org/infalre.html)

Those are the bare facts of the Everitt murder. Compare the elite response to his murder with their response to that of Stephen Lawrence:

1. Only one person was convicted of the murder even though all were guilty of joint enterprise.

2. There has been no media campaign to bring the others to justice.

3. There has been no public inquiry into Richard’s murder.

4. The one person was convicted of Richard’s murder was released after 11 years without any media or political uproar.

5. There has been no concerted media campaign stretching over nearly two decades to bring the others in the gang to justice.

6. Unlike the Lawrence case where the Daily Mail accused the five suspects of murder in 1997 (http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/frontpage/lawrence.h...) , no representative of the national press or broadcasters called any other member of the gang which murdered Richard a murderer.

7. The gang members who attacked Richard were older than those accused of attacking Stephen Lawrence.

8. Unlike the Lawrence murder, British politicians from the word go not only refused to adopt the tone of moral outrage which they routinely do when the death of Stephen Lawrence is discussed, but actively tried to play down the racist aspect. Considerable pressure was put on Richard’s parents at the time to go along with the usual Maoist pc line that they were not racist and so on. The local MP, Frank Dobson, was most notable for his silence

Mon, 2012-01-16 05:51 — Mr Woogy (not verified)

Makes one puke the disgusting crocodile tears of the BBCAQT panel and many others who have set the law back to Anglo Saxon times for the sake of one negro up to mischief.

Fri, 2012-01-13 01:25 — Dave (not verified)

Joint enterprise has been revived as a crime to tackle gang violence.

But it still requires evidence that a person was in the gang that carried out the attack.

There was no identification evidence that Norris or Dobson were in the gang that attacked Lawrence.

It was just alleged that the microsopic fibres and blood spot proved they were. Hardly the compelling proof needed to convict someone of murder.