The father of tragic Black teen Stephen Lawrence has vowed to face his racist killers and push for them to be kept behind bars if they refuse to admit their guilt.
Neville Lawrence, 81, told the Daily Mirror he will give victim impact statements at the parole hearings of Gary Dobson, 47, and David Norris, 46.
The pair are the only members of the gang that fatally stabbed Stephen, 18, at a bus stop in Eltham, South East London on April 22, 1993, to be convicted.
Mr Lawrence said: “To me, it would be essential that these people say ‘Yes, I murdered Stephen Lawrence’ before they are let out into society again.
“My son is dead, he will never be able to come out of the coffin.”
In an interview to mark the 30th anniversary of Stephen’s death on Saturday, Mr Lawrence also said he sees no point in meeting Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley after a report by Baroness Louise Casey last month found the force guilty of institutional racism, sexism and homophobia.
It showed little has changed since the 1999 Macpherson report first found the Met had a problem with racism.
Mr Lawrence said: “No one is taking any notice of what we’re saying, they haven’t been for 30 years, so why would I even bother? I don’t want to meet him.
“If there should ever be a situation where somebody was able to bring good evidence to try to get the rest of the people responsible for my son’s death, who’s going to take the case?”
Mr Lawrence, a retired plasterer, said he is proud of the family’s battle for justice and how it has changed attitudes to race. But he is also sad Black people still cannot rely on the police. He said of recent scandals, including the strip-search of a Black pupil: “Those things make you feel it is an apartheid system they are using by targeting ordinary Black people. If anything happened to me that I needed a police officer, I wouldn’t call them.”
Mr Lawrence and ex-wife Baroness Doreen Lawrence have been praised for their dignity, courage and determination in their fight for justice.
Their torment began when police failed to arrest those suspected of killing Stephen, despite having their names within hours of the attack. The then Labour government granted the family a public inquiry and the Macpherson report delivered damning findings.
The family launched a private prosecution, which failed, and only in 2012 were Dobson and Norris convicted of Stephen’s murder. Dobson got a minimum 15 years two months, Norris 14 years three months. Norris will be eligible for parole next year.
Two remaining suspects, brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, have since served time in prison for drug dealing, while Luke Knight has remained free.
The Lawrences expressed their thanks to former DCI Clive Driscoll, whose probe led to Dobson and Norris being jailed, and they were angered when he was forced off the case in 2014. Mr Lawrence, who has been awarded an OBE and honorary doctorate in law, said: “As a child in Jamaica, I thought the Met were the best police force in the world.
“When my son was murdered I felt, ‘OK, it’s fine they’re going to solve the case’. We had to do a private prosecution to try to get justice. After that, they got a good man who was able to convict two people with a prospect of getting the rest and they got rid of him. What’s that saying? They’re not interested.”
Mr Lawrence met the Mirror at the offices of the Kingston Race and Equalities Council in South West London. Despite his pain and anger, he smiled and laughed during our chat, something he said he could not do after Stephen was killed.
He left Kingston in Jamaica and came to London in 1960, marrying in 1972 and having Stephen and siblings Stuart and Georgina. He said: “Stephen was going to fulfil my childhood ambition to be an architect. I was so pleased, thinking this man is going to do something I wanted to because he was brilliant.”
But on April 22, 1993, Stephen went to school and never came home. Later that day, Mr Lawrence went to see his son’s body in Brook Hospital. He said: “I left the hospital and drove home and I can’t remember driving home.
“The only thing I remember is waking up in the morning and thinking I had had a dream, so I went to his room to look and his bed wasn’t slept in. That’s when I realised what had happened had happened.”
Six years later, Mr Lawrence moved to a safe house after police warned him of an assassination plot. He said: “The best thing to do was to get away from the country. They would have to come to Jamaica and try to kill me there and it wouldn’t happen, they would get killed instead.”
Mr Lawrence now spends most of the year on the Caribbean island, where his boy is buried.
He said: “When I get to the stage I feel the burden is too heavy, I just go. I look after Stephen’s grave, paint it up and make it look nice, that’s my job.”
The Met did not respond directly to Mr Lawrence’s comments and referred to Sir Mark’s comments in the wake of the Casey review, in which he said: “This report needs to lead to meaningful change. If it only leads to pillory and blame of the exceptional majority of officers, then only criminals will benefit.”
