Scotland Yard is facing fresh calls to reopen the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation over the bungled handling of information about a sixth suspect in her son’s murder.
It came as the teenager’s mother Baroness Doreen Lawrence expressed anger that no police officers have faced action over the failings.
Baroness Lawrence said the man accused of leading the group of attackers towards her son, named as Matthew White by the BBC on Monday, avoided capture because of failings by police.
Stephen was 18 when he was murdered by a group of five or six racist attackers in Eltham, south-east London, in April 1993.
In a statement through her solicitor, Baroness Lawrence said: “What is infuriating about this latest revelation is that the man who is said to have led the murderous attack on my son has evaded justice because of police failures and yet not a single police officer has faced or will ever face action.”
She went on: “The failure to properly investigate a main suspect in a murder case is so grave that it should be met by serious sanctions.
“Only when police officers lose their jobs can the public have confidence that failure and incompetence will not be tolerated and that change will happen.”
The names of five suspects have long been publicly linked with the case, but there were always accounts of a sixth, fair-haired attacker.
Two men have been convicted of the murder - Gary Dobson and David Norris, who were jailed for life in 2012 at the end of a trial that hinged on tiny traces of forensic evidence.
The three remaining suspects are brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, who have since served jail time for drug dealing, and Luke Knight, who has remained free.
Barrister Michael Mansfield, who has worked for the Lawrences, insisted it was still possible to put the remaining suspects on trial 30 years after the killing.
One witness said White had admitted he was present and named others in the racist attack and other evidence could still be used against them, the barrister said.Mr Mansfield told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that White “should have been and could have been charged” before his death in 2021.
Det Ch Insp Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association, said there was “certainly a case” to reopen the investigation into the murder.
“I don’t think it should have ever been closed and I think it’s a stain on the Metropolitan Police that it was,” he told LBC News.
“I think it needs to be taken on by an external force and it needs to be looked at by them. Somebody else needs to come in now, and not only review it but follow on with those investigative lines.”
Tory MP Sir Peter Bottomley, who represented Eltham at the time of the murder, told Radio 4 the BBC investigation showed the crime “would have been solved within hours” if the police had given proper attention to the eyewitness evidence from Duwayne Brooks, Stephen’s friend who was at the scene of the racist murder.
Mr Brooks, who gave police a description of the lead attacker which resembled White, said: “I never received the basics of support because of my skin colour. Police forces and other criminal justice agencies need to know that their treatment of victims and witnesses must be at minimum what is set out in the victims code.”
The Metropolitan Police said White was arrested twice over the murder, but on both occasions there was not enough evidence for a prosecution.
A BBC investigation claims that White had a central role in the attack on Stephen, running ahead of the others towards the teenager.
His stepfather, Jack Severs, who died in 2020, told a police officer not involved in the case that White had admitted being present that night.
But Mr Severs was misidentified by the murder investigation team because White had two different stepfathers – a failure the Met called a “significant and regrettable error”.
Then-senior investigating officer Brian Weeden had also planned to meet White and his stepfather but this never took place, the BBC said.
Another witness also told police that White had admitted being involved in the attack.
It was 20 years before Mr Severs was spoken to by a detective investigating the murder, Clive Driscoll, the officer who finally brought Dobson and Norris to justice nearly two decades after they murdered Stephen.
White was first arrested over the murder in March 2000 and again in December 2013 but, on both occasions, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) advised there was no realistic prospect of conviction for any offence, the Metropolitan Police said.
He was spoken to again in February 2020 but there was insufficient witness or forensic evidence to progress any further before he died in August 2021.
A Met spokesman said: “In August 2020 we confirmed that the active investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence had reached the stage where all identified lines of enquiry have been completed, and the investigation would be moving to an inactive phase.
“That remains the case to date. However, no murder investigation is ever closed and any new information that comes to light will be assessed.
“Stephen’s murder will be subject to periodic review to see if matters can be progressed with the passage of time and advances in technology and forensic work.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted: “The impact of the deep-rooted institutional and racially-driven failings in the Stephen Lawrence investigation are still being felt in our communities.
“Police reform is a critical part of my mayoralty. I will not be satisfied until Londoners have the police service they deserve.”
In a statement prompted by the BBC investigation, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Ward said: “The impact of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence and subsequent inquiries continues to be felt throughout policing.
“Unfortunately, too many mistakes were made in the initial investigation and the impact of them continues to be seen.”
Watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct directed the National Crime Agency to investigate whether corruption played a part in the failure to bring anyone to justice for nearly 20 years.
It passed a final file of evidence linked to four former officers to the Crown Prosecution Service in June 2021 and is awaiting a charging decision.
The CPS said more information has been provided at its request in the two years since the file was received.
The former officers have always denied any wrongdoing.
In 1999 the damning Macpherson Report on the murder and its aftermath found that the Met was institutionally racist.
