Doreen Lawrence calls for officers to lose jobs as BBC names sixth suspect in her son's killing. But how did Met fail to spot Matthew White?
He confirmed Jack Severs approached him 30 years ago saying he had a relative with information about the murder, and that the relative had been there that night. The officer said he had passed this on to the homicide investigation.
Lord Sentamu, the former Archbishop of York who advised the 1998 Macpherson public inquiry into Stephen's murder, says the inquiry was "misled" as a result of Met's failure to provide accurate information about the lead on White.In 2013 Driscoll arrested White, who refused to answer questions. The detective was unable to complete the investigation as he was asked to retire weeks later.
Witness Purple's description of what White told him tallies with the first account by Duwayne Brooks of the lead attacker, most notably that he had shouted at them, ran ahead of the other attackers, and struck Stephen first. Had officers interrogated information on White in their own database, they could have been led back to his stepfather - a credible witness who would also have said White admitted to being at the murder scene.The BBC investigation has found that, at the time of the murder, White looked similar to the unidentified suspect known as the "fair-haired attacker".
In Brooks' full statement later that night, it stated that the attacker's hair was "long, over his ears and it was frizzy and stuck out at the sides". Brooks said the man was aged 18 to 22.The colour description was not shared with the full team, and it was years before the first notebook description was even known to some senior officers.
When Det Supt Brian Weeden took over the case four days after the murder, he received a briefing from the man who had led the investigation until then. It concluded: "There was no co-ordination or analysis of the various descriptions given. The fact that one of the attackers was fair haired should have been reflected in decisions made as to the elimination of suspects."White gave witness statements in 1993 and 1999. He lied in both and - based on my own investigation - it seems the Met have not looked into his alibi for many years.
Louise was said to have passed the early aftermath of Stephen's murder while driving home with sister Kelly. White was then said to have walked past the Kavanagh home just as the sisters arrived - where Louise had told him about what had happened on Well Hall Road. This was Louise's story when she spoke to the police.
At that point in time, White could only have known it was a stabbing if he had been present or spoken to one of those responsible within minutes of the late night attack. At that time, the fact it was a stabbing was not even known to Duwayne Brooks and the officer who had got there first. DS Davidson said he registered Grant as a police informant with a senior officer. That officer later denied this ever happened.
But in 1997, the Kent Police investigation also spoke to Grant. He told Kent officers he had revealed to DS Davidson the identity of his source at an early stage. When I located Grant and asked him about White, he became agitated, denied knowing him, and walked away.He was a drug user at the time of Stephen's murder in 1993 and later became a heroin addict. Over the years, White had brief periods of employment as a scaffolder and gardener. He also had a history of theft and spent time in prison.
White then assaulted the victim, made threatening and knowing references to Stephen Lawrence, and referred to his associations with other violent people. A month after the assault, Scotland Yard stopped investigating Stephen's murder, with the Commissioner Cressida Dick saying there were no viable lines of inquiry.His inquest heard his body was not found for several days and the cause of death could not be established. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances. White had been suicidal, overdosed by accident in the recent past, and had health problems linked to his drug use.
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