Stephen Lawrence: New suspect named in the UK’s most notorious racist murder
Today on the 26th of June, the BBC has uncovered the name of the man suspected of murdering Stephen Lawrence as Matthew White, who died in 2021 aged 50.
Scotland Yard told the broadcasting company that “unfortunately, too many mistakes were made in the initial investigation.” Stephen Lawrence’s mother, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, has said there should now be “serious sanctions” on those police officers who failed to investigate White’s role in the murder. Lawrence’s mother has promoted reforms of the police service and founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust as an activist against these types of racist attacks, and has continually campaigned throughout her life since losing her son back in April 1993.
The murder of Stephen Lawrence happened 30 years ago when aged 18 years old, Lawrence was found stabbed to death by a gang of young white men in Eltham, London, next to a bus stop as he waited for his friend Duwayne Brooks. The case prompted a public inquiry following the failures of the Met to properly investigate the perpetrators. This concluded that the Met was institutionally racist.
The Met named only five main suspects, however, the public inquiry found there to be “five or six”. Duwayne Brooks confirmed there to be six attackers on the night. Luke Knight and brothers Neil and James Acourt have not been convicted of any crime, with David Norris and Gary Dobson given life sentences for the murder in 2012.
The case was declared inactive in 2020, with it being told that all lines of inquiry had been completely followed. The BBC went back to the case and found White to be central to the murder. He was named as Witness K initially, and publicly named in 2011 as a witness for the trial of Norris and Dobson. However, it has been uncovered that his alibi was false and he was in fact present for the attack.
The investigation has revealed a plethora of evidence against White, including when a relative of his tried to speak to the Met and wrong information was entered into the Met database. This relative admitted that White was present during the attack. In 2000, another witness told the police that White was present during the attack. Another police force had asked the Met in 1997 to consider White’s role in the attack, and the recommendation was not followed. In footage from 1993, there was a fair-haired attacker seen and described later by Duwayne Brooks, but the description was not shared with all investigators. Finally, Clive Driscoll – the officer who convicted Lawrence’s two killers – had said he was told in 2012 to not bother pursuing the other suspects by Cressida Dick, the Former Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis. Driscoll arrested White but was made to retire before he could wholly complete the line of inquiry.
The father of Lawrence, Dr. Neville Lawrence, has now spoken out to say that any other work into the suspects should be done by another force. “They must be able to find a decent police force who could investigate,” he said.
The evidence against Matthew White now implicates the other three suspects that are still alive, despite his death in 2021. In 2020, White had pleaded guilty to an attack on a black shop worker, that took place a few hundred metres from the scene of Lawrence’s murder. The victim said White had spoken of the case during the assault, telling them they would “Stpehen Lawrenced”. This victim first heard of the charge of assaulting him from a report by a BBC, to which the Met apologised for not telling the victim themselves.
