Stephen Lawrence's parents losing confidence in probe revealing why 'spy cops' targeted their family - Tech

Stephen Lawrence’s parents are losing confidence that a ‘spy cops’ probe will reveal the truth about why undercover police targeted their family after his murder, their lawyers have said.

The Undercover Policing Inquiry was told today how officers circled the Lawrence family, looking to smear them instead of catching their son’s killers.

In an opening statement for Stephen’s mother Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Imran Khan QC said that she doubts the new investigation will discover why they were spied on.

Stephen Lawrence was murdered by a gang of racists in 1993, and incompetence and racism in the police marred the original investigation into his death

How the family of Stephen Lawrence was spied on by police

A campaign group for Stephen Lawrence was one of several organisations that were spied on by undercover police.

Peter Francis, a former officer in the Metropolitan Police Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) turned whistle-blower, claimed that he had been tasked with finding ‘dirt’ on the Lawrence family in the late 1990s. This has always been denied by the force.

What is known is that one undercover officer who used the fake name David Hagan, as well as Mr Francis, joined Movement for Justice in the late 1990s and remained a member for two or three years.

This was during the Macpherson public inquiry into both Stephen’s murder and the alleged corruption, racism and incompetence that dogged the police investigation into his death.

The undercover officer attended the inquiry pretending to be a supporter of the Lawrence campaign, while feeding information back to colleagues in the Met.

In August 1998 he met with acting detective inspector Richard Walton, who was working on Scotland Yard’s final submissions to the inquiry, and passed on details he had gathered while undercover.

This included the fact that Stephen’s parents had separated but also information about the ‘progress, reasons and details of the decisions made by the Lawrence family connected to the inquiry’.

In 2014 a report on undercover policing by barrister Mark Ellison QC alleged that Mr Walton ‘obtained information pertaining to the Lawrence family and their supporters, potentially undermining the inquiry and public confidence’.

He said that had the officer’s presence been revealed, it would have caused ‘public disorder of a far more serious kind than anything envisaged by the original undercover deployment’.

Dr Neville Lawrence has called for the cover names of another four officers involved in the deployment to be published by the Undercover Policing Inquiry.

These are:

HN109 who was Peter Francis’s manager at the beginning of his deployment
HN101 Mr Francis’s colleague
HN86 the Detective chief inspector in charge of the SDS from 1993 to 1996 who was said to hold racist views and allegedly told Mr Francis to find dirt on the Lawrence family
HN58 the head of the SDS from 1997 to 2001 who allegedly knew about the meeting between Mr Hagan and Mr Walton

He has also called for more information on the role of two family liaison officers, who began taking down the names of visitors to the Lawrences’ home in the wake of Stephen’s murder. A list of these visitors was ultimately passed to the SDS.

Dr Lawrence found their behaviour so ‘deeply insensitive and disrespectful’ that he stopped them from coming to his house.

Today, Heather Williams QC, representing Dr Lawrence, told the Undercover Policing Inquiry: ‘He is horrified by the sheer fact that there were undercover officers circling him and his family at this intensely difficult and personal time, looking for material with which to smear them; especially when officers should have been doing all in their power to find his son’s killers.’

She went on: ‘None of this can have been for any legitimate policing purpose. If these matters are true, this is yet another indication that, at least where black families are concerned, the organisation that should be there to protect them, the Metropolitan Police, is actually trying to undermine them.

‘How can the public have confidence in the policing of black communities, if police power is misused to discredit the victims of crime? This all increases the perception for many people that, to the police, black lives do not matter.’

Stephen was murdered by a gang of racists in 1993, and incompetence and racism in the police marred the original investigation into his death.

Nearly 20 years later, two of his killers, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were finally jailed, but the remaining three suspects never faced justice.

Mr Khan said: ‘Baroness Lawrence is losing confidence, if she has not already lost it, in this inquiry’s ability to get to the truth.

‘The truth as to why she, her family and supporters were spied upon by the police.

‘This inquiry is not delivering on what she was promised and is not achieving what she expected.’

The sentiment was echoed by Heather Williams QC, representing Stephen’s father Dr Neville Lawrence, who said: ‘The progress of this inquiry to date does not lead him to feel confidence in its approach or in its outcome.

‘In order for him to draw a line under these terrible events, it is very important to Dr Lawrence that he is able to participate in a fully transparent inquiry, capable of establishing the truth of what happened and capable of learning the lessons necessary to prevent reoccurrence.’

The Lawrences also both raised concerns about the number of police officers and staff who have been granted anonymity – currently the cover names of 51 officers must remain secret, along with 119 of the real names of officers and staff.

Ms Williams said that if the family are at least given the officers’ cover names, they will be able to give evidence about what the police spies did.

So far, one has been published – David Hagan – but there are four others who remain anonymous that Dr Lawrence would like identified.

Baroness Lawrence believes it was only the public nature of the Macpherson Inquiry into her son’s death that meant that the incompetence and racism in the Metropolitan Police was exposed.

Mr Khan said: ‘The fact that the Metropolitan Police and the individual officers have made applications for anonymity and, more importantly, that they have been granted, is a travesty and goes against everything that a public inquiry stands for and what Baroness Lawrence expected.

‘It appears to her that this inquiry is more interested in protecting the alleged perpetrators than the victims.’

The Lawrences also both called on inquiry chairman Sir John Mitting to appoint panel members to help him focus on issues including racism, in the same way as the inquiry into their son’s death in the 1990s.

Mr Khan said Baroness Lawrence believes there has been ‘very little’ change in the Metropolitan Police since her son’s death, and that what action has been taken has been forced upon the service.

It also emerged that undercover officers had spied on the family’s campaign for justice, with whistleblower Peter Francis claiming he had been tasked with finding ‘dirt’ on the Lawrences and their supporters.

Mr Khan said: ‘For any parent to have to outlive their child is unimaginable – to lose their child in such circumstances is inconceivable; to still be fighting for justice 27 years on is unacceptable; and for those parents to be fighting for justice while being spied upon by the police, whose very role was to support and protect them, is simply unforgiveable.’

His opening statement included powerful words from Baroness Lawrence, that read: ‘No one can truly understand the sheer depth of the heartache I have felt.

‘Many have thought that I have courted press attention and profited from it – the reality is that I long for anonymity and would give up all that I have just to go back to the seconds before Stephen’s death and prevent it.

‘I am just an ordinary person. I have nothing special that deserves public attention or acclaim. I simply ask for justice.’

Both he and Ms Williams ended their statements by urging Sir John not to fail Stephen’s family as has happened in the past.

Mr Khan said: ‘You now have the choice of either being one of those in the long line of those that failed Baroness Lawrence or those very few that did not.’

Neville and Doreen Lawrence are losing confidence that a ‘spy cops’ probe will reveal the truth about why undercover police targeted their family after his murder

Heather Williams QC, representing Stephen’s father Dr Neville Lawrence, said: ‘The progress of this inquiry to date does not lead him to feel confidence in its approach or in its outcome.’

Ms Williams told the inquiry: ‘Dr Lawrence has been failed so badly by the state over so many years, as we have shown.

‘He very much hopes that he will not have a similar experience with this inquiry.’

Portrait of the five thugs in the spotlight

David Norris, now 43

Norris, who has five children from various relationships, was jailed for a minimum of 14 years and three months when convicted of Stephen’s murder in 2012.

The gangster’s son grew up in leafy Chislehurst, miles from his fellow gang members who were raised in the more deprived area of Eltham.

Norris, who has convictions for violence and racism, sought £10,000 in damages after he was beaten up in jail in 2017. In 2002, he was jailed for abusing an off-duty police officer on the same road where he and four others had slain Stephen nine years earlier.

Gary Dobson, now 45

Dobson is serving a life sentence in HMP Warren Hill, Suffolk, after he and David Norris were convicted of Stephen’s murder in 2012 when new forensic evidence linked them to the killing.

The father of two was jailed for a minimum of 15 years, two months, and his earliest release date could be 2026.

For 20 years he maintained his innocence but effectively admitted his guilt in 2013 when he abandoned an appeal against his conviction.

Gary Dobson (left) and David Norris were both convicted of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 2012 at the Old Bailey

Jamie Acourt, now 44

Acourt is 18 months into a nine-year jail sentence over a £4million cannabis plot having spent years in Spain on the run.

In 2018 he was found in Barcelona, where he had lived for two years as Simon Alfonzo. He was arrested over Stephen’s murder in 1993 but, like his brother Neil, was never convicted.

At his sentencing for the drug plot in 2018, his barrister claimed the only reason he hid was that he feared the press coverage he would get after years of being dogged by stories about his suspected involvement in the murder.

Neil Acourt, now 45

Neil Acourt was released from prison last year after being jailed for his part in a £4million drugs racket.

He was seen just two miles from where Stephen was murdered last April while out on licence, loading tools into a van. Acourt was never convicted of Stephen’s murder but was jailed for 18 months in 2002 for a racist attack on an off-duty black detective then imprisoned in 2017 for his role in the drug-smuggling operation. In 1994 a police surveillance team filmed him making appalling racist remarks.

Luke Knight, now 43

Knight was never convicted as there was insufficient evidence linking him with the murder. He is the only one of the five arrested over Stephen’s killing who does not have a conviction.

He was held in 1993 over the murder but was released. He appeared in court again in 1996 when Stephen’s parents brought a private prosecution, but walked free when it collapsed.