April 22, 2023, marked the 30th anniversary of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence.
It marked 30 years of pain for his devastated family.
Over the past three decades, there has been a private prosecution, a landmark public inquiry that found the Met police was institutionally racist, revelations that -undercover police spied on the family and infiltrated their campaign for justice, and finally, a murder trial at the Old Bailey.
Speaking on the 30th anniversary, Sir Mark Rowley, current Met Commissioner, apologised for the force’s failures in the aftermath of Stephen’s killing.
The Lawrence family could have been forgiven for thinking that after all this time there were no more surprises left to come.
That illusion was shattered this week with the bombshell revelation there was a sixth suspect – Matthew White – now named two years after he died.
The revelation wouldn’t even have come to light had it not been for an investigation by journalists at the BBC.
They found a catalogue of errors – including a relative of White’s who tried to speak to officers but a “mistake” meant the lead was not pursued – and concluded the Met Police seriously mishandled key inquiries into this sixth suspect.
The fact that Stephen’s loved ones have to live through the horror again and continue to be robbed of justice is a crime in itself.
No police officer has faced any sort of prosecution for the disastrous mishandling of the case.
In 2020, a year before White died of a drug overdose, Scotland Yard announced its decision to stop investigating the case.
Misconduct allegations against four Met officers are still sitting on the desk of the Crown Prosecution Service two years after they were presented to them.
Baroness Lawrence, Stephen’s mum, has called for “serious sanctions” against the police officers who failed to investigate White.
She said: ”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.”
Throughout this ordeal the Lawrence family have acted with the utmost dignity, but just how much more should they be forced to endure? As long as there remain questions to answer and police officers who are not held to account, they can have no justice or no peace.
