Stephen Lawrence murder: Dobson and Norris guilty

Two men have been convicted of the racist murder of black London teenager Stephen Lawrence 18 years after the attack.

Gary Dobson and David Norris were found guilty by an Old Bailey jury after a trial based on forensic evidence.

Scientists found a tiny blood stain on Dobson's jacket that could only have come from Mr Lawrence.

As he was led away, he told the jury they had condemned an "innocent man". Sentencing will be on Wednesday.

Stephen's parents, Doreen and Neville, wept in court as the jury found both men guilty. Duwayne Brooks, Stephen's best friend who had been with him on the night of the murder, tweeted: "Some justice at last".

Gary Dobson's mother, who told the trial her son was at home during the attack, wept in the public gallery of Court 16.

The original failed investigation led to the Metropolitan Police being branded as institutionally racist.

Stephen Lawrence was 18 when he was stabbed to death near a bus stop in Eltham, south London, in April 1993. Police identified five men who were later named in a damning public inquiry as the "prime suspects".

By that time there had already been a catalogue of police errors and two failed prosecutions, one brought by Stephen's parents, Doreen and Neville Lawrence.

But in a four-year-long cold case review, a fresh team of forensic scientists uncovered microscopic evidence linking the men to the murder - evidence that the police had held all along.

The material - blood stains, clothing fibres and a single hair belonging to the teenager - were recovered from the clothes of the suspects which had been seized in 1993.

Scientists recovered the material using advanced techniques which were not available to the original case scientists.


Stephen Lawrence was attacked by a group of white youths in south-east London
Dobson, 36, and Norris, 35, denied the murder. They said their clothing had been contaminated as police mixed up evidence down the years. Detectives spent months establishing the movements and handling of the exhibits since 1993 - and the jury were told that contamination was implausible.

Gary Dobson was jailed in 2010 for drugs trafficking. He is among a small number of men to have been tried twice for the same crime after the Court of Appeal quashed his 1996 acquittal for the murder.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC's Panorama, Stephen's mother Doreen Lawrence said: "I don't forgive the boys who killed Stephen. They don't think they have done anything wrong.

"They took away Stephen's life and there is nothing in their behaviour or anything to show they they regret what their actions have done and the pain it has caused us as a family."

Acting Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, who ordered the 2006 cold case review that led to the convictions, said the case had been extremely important for the Lawrence family, the Metropolitan Police and society at large.

She said: "It's a matter of huge regret to the Met that it has taken 18 years to get to this point.

"It has been a unique case in policing. Firstly the horrible, horrible nature of the attack on the night. The time in which it has taken to bring anybody to justice and the tireless campaigning of the Lawrences.

"There is no comparable case. All homicide cases are terrible, but for us it is a very important case. Most importantly we wanted to be able to bring people to justice for the killing and try to give Doreen and Neville Lawrence and their family some sense of justice."

BBC News