Stephen Lawrence Verdict: Stuart Lawrence On Brother's Death

Stephen Lawrence's Brother: 'They Have To Live With What They Have Done'

The brother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has spoken of the night he died and how he stood at the police cordon with no idea that his elder sibling had been killed behind it.

Stuart Lawrence said he tries not to think about his brother's attackers.

He told the Mail on Sunday he had no feelings towards them, adding "anger and hate are wasted emotions".

"They have to live with what they have done, that is what's eating them up inside and will continue to do so," he said.

Gary Dobson, 36, who is already serving a five-year sentence for drug-dealing, was sentenced to at least 15 years and two months at the Old Bailey on Wednesday for the murder of 18-year-old Stephen in 1993.

David Norris, 35, was given a minimum of 14 years and three months for the murder, which the judge said was a "terrible and evil crime".

Speaking of the night Stephen died, Mr Lawrence described how neighbours had knocked on his family's front door in Plumstead, south-east London, and told them he had been in a fight in nearby Eltham.

Mr Lawrence, now 34, was 16 at the time, and remembers how his parents, Neville and Doreen, rushed out to find out what had happened.

He was left at home with his younger sister, Georgina, but later rode out on his bike to see what was going on.

He said: "At first, I was more curious than anything. Stephen in a fight? It just didn't happen. It wasn't like that. He was always the diplomat, the one who worked around trouble."

He said that when he arrived at the cordon, he asked why the road was closed and was told there had been an incident. But he said he did not connect Stephen to what they were saying.

Mr Lawrence said that if he had found out then it would have been "much more soul-destroying" than finding out from his parents.

He told the paper that he was taken home by the police officers, which he believes they did because he had told them his name.

When his parents later arrived home and told him what had happened, he said he experienced "anger, disbelief, confusion" and was "crying uncontrollably".

"Why would someone do that to my brother? He wasn't a horrible person. He wasn't someone who got into trouble. He wasn't part of a gang. There couldn't be a less likely victim," he said.

"He was everything I wanted to be. All his teachers thought he was a golden child and to me he was a role model. I was always trying to be as good as him."

Britain's top law officer is reviewing claims that jail terms for Dobson and Norris are "unduly lenient".

Several formal requests have been made since an Old Bailey trial judge suggested he would increase their minimum sentences if the law allowed.

A spokesman for the Attorney General said he had been contacted by several individuals requesting a review after a member of the public made a first formal application within hours of the killers being jailed.

Police have been following up fresh information in efforts to hunt down other suspects in the racist murder since Tuesday's guilty verdicts.

Scotland Yard has denied claims that investigations were being scaled down after Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said other suspects will not be allowed to "rest easily in their beds".

Mr Justice Treacy urged police not to "close the file" on catching the rest of the killers after the court heard that a gang of five or six white youths set upon A-level student Stephen.

He said the murder was committed "for no other reason than racial hatred".

Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll, who has been the senior officer in the case for a number of years, has said officers would be visiting Dobson and Norris in prison to see whether they would be willing to assist the inquiry and said he remained "optimistic" about further progress being made in the case.

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