The Home Secretary will appoint a leading barrister to review the Scotland Yard investigation into allegations of corruption in the original Stephen Lawrence murder hunt.
Theresa May will appoint a QC to examine the inquiry, which was launched after David Norris and Gary Dobson were jailed for life in January this year after they were convicted of Mr Lawrence’s racist murder in 1993.
The victim’s mother, Doreen, called for a fresh public inquiry following claims that Scotland Yard had withheld paperwork from the Macpherson Inquiry. The Metropolitan Police held a review to examine those corruption claims, but found no new evidence.
The scope of the Home Office’s independent review has yet to be decided and the barrister who will lead it has yet to be chosen.
“The Home Secretary has asked for a QC-led review of the work the Metropolitan Police has undertaken into investigating claims of corruption in the original Stephen Lawrence murder investigation,” the Home Office said today.
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Earlier this year, officers from the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) looked at thousands of documents, many dating from the 1980s, from Scotland Yard archives and from government archives in Kew. They spoke to serving and retired officers, and the junior counsel for the force in the case.
This review found that no investigations, nor the inquiry, uncovered evidence of corruption or collusion which could have hampered or influenced the original or subsequent investigations.
It also found that the force had disclosed all material relating to “adverse information” it had about three officers of concern, and upon whom the corruption claims centred.
There was no other material known to be held by the force which suggested that corruption or collusion impacted on the initial investigation into Mr Lawrence’s murder, and there are no new allegations from the recent claims, the force said yesterday.
Any allegations or suggestions had already been investigated by the Met and IPCC, it said.
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Commander Peter Spindler, from the DPS, said: “At this stage there are no new allegations or evidence that would merit further investigation.
“However, should any new information arise relating to alleged corruption in the original investigation into Stephen’s murder, it would be seriously considered.”
The Independent Police Complaints Commission also this year reviewed its 2006 investigation into complaints following the broadcast that year of the BBC programme The Boys Who Killed Stephen Lawrence.
The police watchdog said its review followed reports on allegations made by former Met Police officer Neil Putnam about the relationship between former Detective Sergeant John Davidson and Clifford Norris, David Norris’s father.
But yesterday the IPCC also said it found that no new information or evidence has been made available which would lead to a change in the conclusions reached by its original investigation into allegations made by the BBC documentary.