There have been calls to reopen police inquiries into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence after a BBC investigation uncovered new evidence.
Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Stephen’s mother, said it was “infuriating” no officers had suffered consequences. There should be “serious sanctions” for the failed investigation, she said.
A BBC investigation has named Matthew White as a suspect in the 1993 murder in Eltham, south-east London. Five prime suspects were previously known, and two were convicted in 2012. White died in 2021.
The BBC found that witnesses had said White told them he had been present during the attack, that evidence showed his alibi was false, and that police surveillance photos of White showed a resemblance to eyewitness accounts of an unidentified fair-haired attacker.
Evidence also revealed more mistakes by police, raised questions over the Metropolitan Police’s decision to stop investigating in 2020, and further implicated suspects who are still alive.
Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley, who was the member of parliament for Eltham at the time and now father of the house of commons said “the crime could have been solved within hours” had the police given proper attention to eye witness evidence from Lawrence’s friend, Duwayne Brooks.
Mr Khan said: “This investigation wasn’t done by police officers; it was done by journalists. This stuff should have been known by police officers 30 years ago, not journalists 30 years later.”
Major Khan is correct; this is an investigation being carried out by the media and being backed up by politicians. Yes, the police probably did make huge errors 30 years ago and yes, there are probably men involved in Stephens murder that escaped justice.
However, the media and politicians hold most of the responsibility here. They berate the police constantly, they demand this case gets re-examined again but they also demand the police investigate mean tweets, do diversity training, baby sit mental health patients because the NHS can’t cope and participate in pride marches whilst simultaneously barring new recruits because they liked a Britain First post on Facebook five years ago. If that’s not bad enough, their own chief constables say they’re institutionally racist.
If the officers could just be left in peace to actually solve crimes, many crimes would get solved.
The Homeland Party would make sure the media keep their noses out of policing. We also note that the name of Stephen Lawrence and his racist murder has conveniently popped up just after two non-Whites attack and kill White children, students and a middle-aged man.
We must always be cynically reminded of that one incident of white-on-black crime which is now a fixed point in time, branded in our souls for eternity.
