One of the two men found guilty of murdering Black teenager Stephen Lawrence has admitted being involved in the attack, 32 years after the UK’s most notorious racist killing.
David Norris, who received a life sentence in 2012, “has accepted he was present at the scene and punched the victim but claims that he did not wield the knife”, according to reports cited by the Parole Board, which assesses whether prisoners in England and Wales are safe to be released.
Norris “does not accept he holds racist views”, the board added, without specifying the nature of the reports.
In 2012, Norris and Gary Dobson, two of the original suspects, were convicted of Lawrence’s murder at a bus stop in south-east London under joint enterprise. The legal mechanism allows an individual to be charged with another person’s crime if it is believed they foresaw and encouraged it.
The pair were among five gang members arrested by the Metropolitan Police in the immediate aftermath of the murder in April 1993, alongside brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, and Luke Knight.
Neil Acourt, Knight and Dobson were acquitted of murder at the Old Bailey in 1996. Charges against Norris and Jamie Acourt were dropped before that trial began. All have denied involvement.
Matthew White was named by the Met two years ago as a suspect in the case, following an investigation by the BBC. He died in 2021, aged 50.
The convictions of Dobson and Norris came after a change to the “double jeopardy” law, which allows a person to be tried a second time for the same offence.
They also followed several police investigations, an inquest into Lawrence’s murder that returned a verdict of “unlawful killing”, and a damning public inquiry that accused the Met of incompetence in the original probe and “institutional racism”.
The developments in relation to Norris, first reported by the Daily Mirror, came as the Parole Board rejected his request to have his parole hearing held in private.
Peter Rook KC, Parole Board vice-chair, said he had “concluded that it is in the interests of justice for there to be a public hearing in this case”, adding: “The case is of public importance due to the impact the murder has had on the community and policing.”
Neville Lawrence, Stephen’s father, said earlier this year that he would accept Norris being granted parole “if he can show remorse and show he’s changed”.
