Stephen Lawrence’s murder and the failed investigation sparked a landmark public inquiry
Stephen Lawrence’s best friend has said he could have identified a sixth suspect in his friend’s murder if he had been given the opportunity.
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, Duwayne Brooks said he would have picked out Matthew White, who died in 2021, in a line-up.
White was named as the sixth suspect on Monday, following a BBC investigation.
Mr Brooks accused police of sabotaging the investigation into the racist killing of Stephen 30 years ago.
The pair were waiting for a bus when 18-year-old Stephen was killed in Eltham, south-east London in April 1993.
The failure of the first police investigation prompted a landmark public inquiry which concluded the Met was institutionally racist.
Mr Brooks said: “If they had put him in an ID parade in front of me at the time I would have picked him out 100%.”
“There’s no doubt and I’m extremely confident other people at the bus stop would have picked him out and this case would have been solved then.”
An artist’s impression of the “fair-haired attacker”, Matthew White and a police e-fit
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, and files were sent to the Crown Prosecution Service in 2005 and 2014. But on both occasions prosecutors said there was no realistic prospect of conviction.
Mr Brooks told the paper he believed police treating White as a witness and not a suspect was “deliberate” so White would not have to face an ID parade.
“I believe the investigation team were corrupt and made decisions they knew would be fatal to the investigation,” he said.
“Matthew White was placed in the witness bracket when he should have been a suspect. I took part in three or four ID parades and they brought before me every man and his dog, and cat and rat and mouse and hamster.
“But this guy was never put before me. It was a deliberate act of sabotage. He died without having faced court. It’s disappointing. He should have been brought before a jury.”
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.”
