Doreen Lawrence, Stephen’s mother, will write to Theresa May in a bid to call for the inquiry into racist murder to be reopened after secret police files revealed that a detective who was conducting the original investigation was a “major player” in a ring of the corrupted police officers.
Last week, a leaked Scotland Yard document revealed that Detective Sergeant John Davidson, one of the leading detectives who interviewed the suspects following the murder, received payments from Clifford Norris, the father of David Norris jailed in January for the racist murder of Stephen in 1993.
Stephen’s mother said that May has “a duty of care” to disclose the police corruption as it was revealed that the close links between Davidson and Norris were withheld from the original inquiry.
“I could never understand why Stephen’s case was so difficult to deal with. But when you hear about the relationship between Norris’ father and the police you start to understand all of that,” she said.
The 1999 Macpherson Inquiry said that the Metropolitan Police was institutionally racist, but insisted that there was not enough evidence that corruption had led to the failure of the police force to find the killers.
Imran Khan, the Lawrence family lawyer, stressed that it was crucial to understand whether it was racism or corruption that concerned the investigation.
“We want to put this to bed but we can’t. Had we not known about the corruption and what came out recently it may be that we would have carried on in our merry ways,” he added.
SAB/MB/HE
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