Stephen Lawrence: The long wait for justice

At the start of the trial at the Old Bailey, Doreen and Neville Lawrence sat a few feet away from the two men, Gary Dobson and David Norris accused of killing their son Stephen. They hope, as do the whole country that British justice will at last be done and their son’s killers brought to justice. It’s been a long wait.

The senseless murder in 1993 of such a promising young man, exacerbated by internal police racism and corruption exposed forever the shocking level of racism in the UK. The failure to bring a case against five men who clearly played a part on that horrific day led to a Public Inquiry that forced not just the Metropolitan police force but all our institutions to confront systemic institutional bias that worked against Black people throughout the UK. Institutional racism was no longer just in the minds of Black people who knew it existed. Judge Machperson and his eminent panel officially stated that ‘Institutional Racism’, played a significant part in the Metropolitan police not bringing those suspected of Stephen’s murder to justice.

Stephen did not die in vain. The Inquiry into his murder led to a change in British law, aspects of which still remain today. And the Stephen Lawrence centre which seeks to inspire and train young men and women of the area to fulfil their great potential is a fitting monument for Stephen and his family.

But after nearly twenty years the family, who have had to endure the tragic pain of losing a loved one and the system that dramatically failed them, will have to wait and hope that justice will finally be done.

Simon Woolley