Stephen Lawrence/Murder

 Stephen Lawrence/Murder 

Type	Murder

Stephen Lawrence (13 September 1974 – 22 April 1993) was a black British man from Plumstead, south east London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus on the evening of 22 April 1993. The case became a cause célèbre and one of the highest profile racial killings in UK history; its fallout included profound cultural changes to attitudes on racism and the police, and to the law and police practice, and the partial revocation of double jeopardy laws, before two of the perpetrators were convicted almost 20 years later in 2012.

After the initial investigation, five suspects were arrested but not convicted. It was suggested during the course of that investigation that the murder was racially motivated and that Lawrence was killed because he was black, and that the handling of the case by the police and Crown Prosecution Service was affected by issues of race. A public inquiry was held in 1998, headed by Sir William Macpherson, that examined the original Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) investigation and concluded that the force was institutionally racist. It also recommended that the double jeopardy rule should be abrogated in murder cases to allow a retrial upon new and compelling evidence; this became law in 2005 with the passage of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The publication in 1999 of the resulting Macpherson Inquiry report has been called "one of the most important moments in the modern history of criminal justice in Britain". Jack Straw, Home Secretary from 1997 to 2001, commented in 2012 that ordering the inquiry was "the single most important decision I made as Home Secretary". In 2010 the case was described as being "one of the highest-profile unsolved racially-motivated murders".

Retrial and convictions

On 18 May 2011, following a cold case review, it was announced that two of the original suspects, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were to stand trial for the murder in the light of "new and substantial evidence" becoming available. At the same time it was disclosed that Dobson's original acquittal had been quashed by the Court of Appeal, allowing a retrial to take place. Such an appeal had only become possible following the 2005 change in the law, although Dobson was not the first person to be retried for murder as a result. On 3 January 2012, Dobson and Norris were found guilty of Lawrence's murder; the pair were juveniles at the time of the crime and were sentenced to detention at Her Majesty's pleasure, equivalent to a life sentence for an adult, with minimum terms of 15 years 2 months and 14 years 3 months respectively for what the Judge described as a "terrible and evil crime".

Ellison Inquiry

In the years after Dobson and Norris were sentenced, the case again regained prominence when concerns of corrupt police conduct during the original case handling surfaced in the media. Such claims had surfaced before, and been investigated in 2006, but were reignited in 2013 when a former undercover police officer stated in an interview that at the time, he had been pressured to find ways to "smear" and discredit the victim's family, to mute and deter public campaigning for better police responses to the case. Although further inquiries in 2012 by both Scotland Yard and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPPC) had ruled that there was no basis for further investigation, Home Secretary Theresa May ordered an independent inquiry into undercover policing and corruption by Mark Ellison QC, which was described as "devastating" when published in 2014.

IPPC investigates Met Commander

In March 2014, The Guardian reported that Commander Richard Walton had been moved "temporarily" from his post as head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command (CTC) and had been referred by his force to the IPCC. The move came after Mark Ellison's report found that during the 1998 Macpherson Inquiry into the Lawrence case the Met had a spy in the Lawrence camp. Codenamed N81, the spy secretly passed "fascinating and valuable" intelligence on to a senior Met officer, Richard Walton, who was involved in drafting the then Met Commissioner Sir Paul Condon's defence of his force's conduct during the investigation. In a statement the Met said:

"Following the publication of the Ellison report, the Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Craig Mackey, has today made the decision to move Commander Richard Walton temporarily from his post as head of the counter-terrorism command, SO15, to a non-operational role. The Metropolitan Police has voluntarily referred the matter to the IPCC."

When the Met announced that Cdr Richard Walton would resume his role in the CTC on 1 December 2014, lawyer Imran Khan, who represents Stephen's mother Doreen Lawrence, said:

"She is appalled by the decision to put him back on operational duties even before the investigation is complete."

IPPC apology

The head of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), Dame Anne Owers, said she had apologised to the Lawrence family for the police watchdog's part in prolonging the "family's search for the truth". Owers said the Ellison review made it clear that a 2006 IPCC investigation was "wrong" to conclude there was no evidence to suggest Scotland Yard withheld information in relation to corruption from the Macpherson Inquiry into Stephen Lawrence's death. She said:

"I fully recognise this has prolonged by many years the Lawrence family's search for the truth about the failed investigation into their son's murder. I have today written to Baroness Lawrence and Mr Lawrence to apologise for our part in this."

Vow to reform the Met

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said the publication of the "devastating" Ellison report, which found the Metropolitan Police spied on the Lawrence family, marked one of the worst days in his police career.

The Met Police Commissioner vowed to reform the force, which is the largest in Britain and whose leaders have made similar pledges in the past. It was the first time Hogan-Howe had commented since publication of the Ellison report into allegations of corruption shielding the killers of Lawrence and into undercover officers spying on the dead teenager's grieving family. Hogan-Howe said:

"This was a devastating report for the Metropolitan police and one of the worst days that I have seen as a police officer."

Full truth yet to emerge

Home Secretary Theresa May branded the revelations about the Lawrence case, some 21 years after the murder, as "profoundly shocking and disturbing", adding that "policing stands damaged today". She said the full truth had yet to emerge.

David Cameron subsequently said on Twitter:

"Like the Home Secretary, I find the conclusions of the Stephen Lawrence review profoundly shocking. It's important we have a full inquiry."

NCA investigation

In October 2015, the National Crime Agency (NCA) set up a fresh investigation to determine whether police corruption helped protect the killers of Stephen Lawrence.

Timely resignation

On 20 January 2016 – just six days after the Independent Police Complaints Commission reported that he "would have a case to answer for misconduct" in relation to the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry – Commander Richard Walton resigned, thereby preventing the Metropolitan Police from taking any action against him.

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