Cold case: how the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence was solved
4/30/202643 min
Britain was changed forever by the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in South East London in April 1993. What followed was a story of police incompetence, institutional racism and, eventually, a cold case that was cracked and which led to murder convictions for two of the original five suspects. In this episode, Andy & Neil explain how cold cases work, and Neil reveals the personal role he played in helping to convict David Norris and Gary Dobson of Stephen Lawrence's murder.
They also explain how developments in forensics and the abolition of the 'double jeopardy' law played a vital part in bringing two of Stephen's killers to justice, and Neil gives his view on whether any of the other murderers are ever likely to see the inside of a prison cell for their part in what happened in Eltham 33 years ago.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 0· Soundbite0:01
[upbeat music] This is a Global Player original podcast.
Andy Hughes· Host0:05
Within twenty-four hours, the Lawrence family gave police the names of the five suspects, and yet detectives took two weeks to arrest them.
Neil Basu· Host0:16
They initially treated it as this must be two Black boys up to no good.
Andy Hughes· Host0:19
Yeah.
Neil Basu· Host0:19
This must be a drug deal gone wrong.
Andy Hughes· Host0:21
One senior detective saying that, "Oh, I didn't know if I could arrest someone on reasonable suspicion." You're a police officer, of course you can. It's just unbelievable.
Neil Basu· Host0:32
They didn't seal the scene properly. They didn't stop witnesses. They didn't take the details of witnesses.
Andy Hughes· Host0:37
They terrorized that local community.
Neil Basu· Host0:39
Yeah.
Andy Hughes· Host0:39
They were known as young, white, racist thugs.
Neil Basu· Host0:42
The whole way we investigate murders today, and we have a ninety-nine percent clear-up rate, has been professionalized by this very case.
Speaker 0· Soundbite0:49
[gentle music] The Crime Agents.
Andy Hughes· Host0:52
Welcome back to The Crime Agents with me, crime journalist Andy Hughes.
Neil Basu· Host0:55
And me, the ex-cop Neil Basu.
Andy Hughes· Host0:57
Neil, there's a saying that detectives have, isn't there, that cold cases are never really cold, are they? And that's because two things can always change. That is science and loyalty, and it just takes one small breakthrough for a case to be blown wide open. So we're gonna be talking in this episode about how unsolved murder cases work, and we're also gonna be exploring, uh, one of the most famous cold cases in British history, the brutal killing of Stephen Lawrence.