Stephen Lawrence murder: Friend 'could have identified sixth suspect'

Stephen Lawrence's friend has said he could have identified a sixth suspect in his friend's murder if he had been given the opportunity.

In an interview with the BBC, Duwayne Brooks said he would have picked out Matthew White, who died in 2021, in a line-up.

On Monday, White was named as the sixth suspect in the racist killing 30 years ago, following a BBC investigation.

Stephen, 18, was killed in Eltham, south-east London in April 1993.

Mr Brooks was waiting for a bus with Stephen at the time.

The failure of the first police investigation prompted a landmark public inquiry which concluded the Met was institutionally racist.

Asked whether pictures of White broadcast by the BBC investigation were of the same person he had described to police, Mr Brooks said: "100%. Not only did I describe him as best I could, you had other witnesses at the bus stop who also described him."

"I am 100% certain that if that person was put before me, and the other witnesses, in the initial stages of the investigations on an ID parade, we all would have picked him out."

In 1993, Mr Brooks and eyewitness described an attacker who bore a plain resemblance to Matthew White, but police did not treat White as a suspect for years.

The BBC investigation included statements and artists' impressions from the time.

Mr Brooks said it would now be "impossible" to remember what the attacker looked like from memory, but "there is no doubt in my mind, from what I described, from those drawings, what you can see from the other witnesses, that that is the person who was there. At the scene, on the night."

He said the way his evidence was dealt with in 1993 involved "corruption" and "decisions made back then were a deliberate act of sabotage".

When approached for comment the Met said it would not be issuing a new statement.

Mr Brooks originally spoke to the Sunday Mirror, before being interviewed by the BBC.

The Met Police has consistently said there were six white men involved, as Mr Brooks said on the night.

Five prime suspects became widely known after the murder, but the public inquiry said there were "five or six" attackers.

David Norris and Gary Dobson were given life sentences for the murder in 2012. The other three - Luke Knight and brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt - have not been convicted of the crime.

White was arrested twice, in 2000 and 2013, with files later sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. But on both occasions prosecutors said there was no realistic prospect of conviction.

In May and June 1993 Mr Brooks and eyewitnesses to the murder attended identity parades which included the prime suspects in the case, but Matthew White was not part of the parades.

In the same BBC interview, Mr Brooks said the criminal justice system doesn't work for victims "at this moment in time". He added that an apology from the Met would be a "tick-boxing exercise".

"The way I have been treated is a disgrace. My experience should never have happened."

Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Stephen Lawrence's mother, has also criticised the police handling of information about a sixth suspect in her son's murder, saying there should be "serious sanctions" against the police officers who failed to investigate White.

In response to the naming of Matthew White as a suspect, the Met Police confirmed he was seen again in 2020, but there was insufficient witness or forensic evidence to progress further.

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."

Update, 26 March 2024: After being challenged by the BBC, the Metropolitan Police has accepted it provided incorrect information in its public statement in response to this investigation. It has now corrected the dates when it provided files to the CPS about Matthew White and when it received charging decisions. The Met statement said it passed the first file to the CPS in May 2005, but the force now accepts it received a charging decision in May 2004 and that the file was passed to the CPS much earlier. The Met statement said it passed the second file in October 2014 but the force now accepts it did so in May 2014.