A man who was named as the sixth suspect in the Stephen Lawrence murder and died in 2021 without being properly scrutinised was just one of a string of errors in the investigation into his death.
Thug Matthew White chillingly told a black man who confronted him, as he attempted to shoplift in Eltham, South East London in 2020, that he would be “Stephen Lawrenced”, before adding “Remember where you are, remember what happened to Stephen Lawrence. I can call my boys, they can come down and they can deal with you.”
The victim said White mentioned Stephen Lawrence in almost every threat, at least eight or nine times, and even said he was killed at the nearby bus stop. White later pleaded guilty to assault. A month after the attack, the Met stopped investigating Stephen’s murder.
Stephen Lawrence's mum Doreen said she was 'unsurprised' by police failures when White was named as murder suspect. Just a year later, White died in a bedsit. His body lay there for several days before it was discovered. He was said to have been suicidal and had taken an earlier overdose.
At the time Baroness Lawrence vented her fury at the police failings that she said resulted in White escaping justice over her son’s killing. It emerged he was one one who was said to have led the unprovoked attack on Stephen, 18, as he waited at a bus stop on the evening of April 22, 1993.
White, then 22, allegedly told a key witness a few days later that he was involved in the murder but detectives failed to follow up the lead for 20 years. Baroness Lawrence said in a statement at the time: “What is infuriating about this latest revelation is that the man who is said to have led the murderous attack on my son has evaded justice because of police failures and yet not a single police officer has faced or will ever face action.”
“The failure to properly investigate a main suspect in a murder case is so grave that it should be met by serious sanctions. 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.”
Scotland Yard said White, a heroin addict who died three years ago, was arrested twice on suspicion of Stephen’s murder, in 2000 and 2013, and that files were sent to the Crown Prosecution Service in 2005 and 2014. But on both occasions prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to charge him.
White’s stepfather Jack Severs told a detective in 1993 that he had admitted being involved in the murder but his name was not recorded correctly and the witness was not approached by police for 20 years. Mr Severs, who died in 2020, was only spoken to for the first time in 2013.
Mr Severs said that in the days after Stephen’s murder, his stepson admitted being there when the teen was killed. White acted like it was an everyday occurrence and said Stephen “had deserved it”, he said.
The Met described the failing as a significant and regrettable error.
Baroness Lawrence added: “It simply beggars belief that those paid to do a job continue failing to do it. “Constant and repeated apologies from the MPS will not bring my son back and will not give me justice. It is too late for me and my family but at least I hope that victims in the future will not go through what we did.”
Five suspects have long been publicly named as being linked to Stephen’s murder. Gary Dobson, 47, and David Norris, 46, were jailed for life in 2012 following a trial based on new forensic evidence. The other three are brothers Neil, 47, and Jamie Acourt, 46, who have since served jail time for drug dealing, and Luke Knight, 46, who has remained free.
But Duwayne Brooks, who was with Stephen on the night of 22 April 1993, has always said there were six attackers, with the lead suspect having fair hair. All the other five suspects had dark hair. White, who fitted the description of the first attacker, was spotted alone and close to the murder scene repeatedly in its aftermath and was spoken to by police in the first two weeks of the probe.
White was on friendly terms with the Acourts before the murder though he was not a member of their gang. At 22, he was older than the teenage Acourt gang members. He already had convictions for burglary and shoplifting at the time of the murder. Detectives on the original investigation were certain he knew more about the murder than he would admit but he refused to cooperate, on one occasion running out of a back door when he heard police knocking.
White had told friends that he was threatened by Norris within 48 hours of the murder and a relative told police he feared the Acourts were after him. In his witness statement, he said he had visited Neil and Jamie Acourt about an hour after the murder, seeing the brothers and Gary Dobson at the front door.
He was previously named as a witness during the trial of Norris and Dobson and was known as “Witness K” during the 1999 Macpherson Inquiry that found the Met was institutionally racist. Another witness also told police in 2000 that White had admitted being involved in the attack. He went on to compile a string of convictions and spent time in jail having become hooked on heroin.
In a statement last year, deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Ward said: “Unfortunately, too many mistakes were made in the initial investigation and the impact of them continues to be seen. On the 30th anniversary of Stephen’s murder, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley apologised for our failings and I repeat that apology today.”
The original investigation failed to arrest the suspects for two weeks despite officers being given the names of five suspects in the days after Stephen died. Watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct directed the National Crime Agency to investigate whether corruption played a part in the failure to bring anyone to justice for nearly 20 years.
It passed a file of evidence linked to four former officers to the CPS in November 2020 and is waiting for a decision on whether they should face criminal charges over their actions and omissions in the case, a spokesman said. A routine forensic review of key items of clothing is currently being undertaken by the Met.