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The mother of Stephen Lawrence has urged witnesses to come forward to assist a review into her son’s racist murder more than 30 years ago.
A gang chased, surrounded and stabbed Stephen, who was 18, near a south-east London bus stop in April 1993; two men were convicted of his murder in 2012, but at least three members of the gang remain at large.
Scotland Yard closed the investigation in 2020 but last year agreed to a review of the closure decision and other aspects of the case to be overseen by the standards body, the College of Policing.
The review, which has begun, followed a BBC News story naming a sixth suspect, Matthew White, who died in 2021.
Speaking to the BBC, Doreen Lawrence, a member of the House of Lords, said: “This is the last opportunity that we’re going to have to get the complete justice that I think Stephen so deserves.
“So I would like to ask [witnesses], whatever they felt at the time, or whatever happened if they tried to help, please come forward now.”
Lady Lawrence told the BBC that key suspects, the brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, had “been sitting quite pretty”.
“They believe they’ve got away with it, and the police have allowed them to think that they’ve got away with it,” she said.
The Acourt brothers have always denied being involved with the murder.
“It’s been going on for 32 years, and we haven’t come to an end of it,” Lawrence added. “Most people have come to the end and [are] allowed to grieve in private. We haven’t been given that opportunity.”
The former Metropolitan police DCI Clive Driscoll, who led the investigation that secured murder convictions against Gary Dobson and David Norris in 2012, has been involved with the review.
Driscoll, whom Lawrence described as the only police officer she trusted, left the Met in 2014 despite wanting to stay on and pursue promising leads that could lead to some or all of the remaining suspects being charged.
