Father of Stephen Lawrence ‘very frustrated' at killer's parole hearing delay

Yahoo

28-07-2025

The father of Stephen Lawrence is 'very frustrated' and has asked for a full explanation after the public parole hearing for one of his son's killers was delayed.
David Norris was due to make a bid for freedom on Wednesday and Thursday, but the hearing was adjourned because unspecified information was not made available to the panel that is due to hear the case.
A lawyer for Stephen's father Neville Lawrence said the Government had failed to provide the details.
Guy Mitchell, from Hodge Jones and Allen, said: 'Dr Lawrence is understandably very frustrated by this last-minute delay to the hearing which was due to go ahead on Wednesday.
'We understand this is due to the Government failing to provide certain information to the Parole Board in time. Dr Lawrence is seeking a full explanation as to the reason for this failing.'
Norris was jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years and three months in 2012 after he and Gary Dobson were convicted of murder in 2011 nearly 20 years after Stephen's racist killing.
A spokesperson for the Parole Board said: 'The hearing has had to be adjourned due to information directed by the panel not being made available for the case.
'Without all proper information, the panel cannot consider a parole review.
'The panel's priority must be to ensure the relevant information is available, so that they can thoroughly review the potential risks and ensure public protection.'
A new date will be set for the public hearing once the information has been provided.
Stephen was on his way to catch a bus with his friend Duwayne Brooks in Eltham, south-east London, in April 1993 when he was set upon and killed by a gang of five or six attackers who used a racist term before they struck.
Incompetence and allegations of corruption, centred around Norris's drug dealer father Clifford Norris, dogged the investigation into Stephen's death for years.
There was also outrage when it emerged that undercover officers from the Metropolitan Police had spied on justice campaigners supporting the family.
In 1999 a public inquiry into the case found that the force was institutionally racist, a conclusion repeated by Baroness Casey in 2023 in her review following the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer.
Parole hearings are normally held in private but a public hearing was allowed in Norris's case after an application by the media that was backed by Stephen's parents.
In a document outlining the decision, it was revealed that Norris now accepts that he was present at the scene of the murder, but claims that he punched Stephen and was not the person who stabbed him.
The other suspects in the case were Jamie and Neil Acourt, who have since been convicted of unrelated drugs offences, and Luke Knight. A sixth suspect, Matthew White, died in 2021.
The College of Policing is leading a review of the most recent stage of the investigation into Stephen's death after Dobson and Norris were convicted.