In my January 2006 speech on the murder of Stephen Lawrence, I said: “In an extraordinary development, police now believe Gary Dobson, and perhaps Luke Knight, are innocent. They believe Dobson, and possibly Knight, were at home at the time of the attack.”
I was quoting a report from the Sunday Telegraph of February 28, 1999. There were cogent reasons for this belief. Duwayne Brooks who was with Lawrence and therefore a credible witness said there were six members of the gang who attacked his friend, yet the Acourt gang consisted of only five youths – or so it was believed at the time. Credible witness or not, Brooks could have been mistaken due to the traumatic nature of the incident.
One of the lines of inquiry followed by the detectives assigned to the case was that there were two white gangs on the streets of Eltham that night, and that they were on their way to fight each other. It was believed Lawrence could have been attacked by the other gang.
We know now that Duwayne Brooks was correct; the known members of the Acourt gang at that time were Gary Dobson, Luke Knight, David Norris and the Acourt brothers – Jamie and Neil.
In June 2023, the Metropolitan Police named the sixth member of the gang. Matthew White was arrested in 2000 and 2013 but no further action was taken each time. He died in 2021 at the relatively young age of 50.
A total of at least eight people were arrested on suspicion of complicity in the murder, and considering the extraordinary lengths to which the police went in their investigation, it is unfair to make disparaging claims about them. Police officers can be criticised for many things, but not for failing Stephen Lawrence.
In 2012, Dobson and Norris were convicted of the murder; I covered the abolition of double jeopardy in my speech, and although Norris has now admitted to his part in the crime (at a parole hearing in October 2025), I still think this is a very bad idea.
In spite of his own admission, Norris has refused to “grass” on any of the others, who if tried could all be convicted by dint of joint enterprise, although the usual suspects claim the joint enterprise law is racist.
We will probably never know the full truth about this murder, or if it is known, it will not be believed, but having secured two convictions for one death, reasonable people from all backgrounds should be satisfied, more than satisfied considering the effort and expense that was put into procuring them. Finally, Stephen Lawrence should be allowed to rest in peace, even if his untimely death will continue to be exploited by both the race lobby and the extreme left.
January 26, 2026
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