Stephen Lawrence was murdered on April 22 1993 in an unprovoked racist knife attack in south London. He was just eighteen at the time. He had been waiting for a bus with his friend, Duwayne Brooks. A group of five to six white youths surrounded him and at least one of them stabbed him to death. Almost 20 years later in 2012, two men were convicted of Stephen’s murder.
The murder and its aftermath set off a series of changes in police investigations, most notably regarding family liaison. The public inquiry that followed culminated in the Macpherson report of 1999. This uncovered major failings in the police investigation and the way Stephen’s family and his friend were treated.
