The 18-year-old was “swallowed up” and forced to the ground by a gang who attacked him because of the colour of his skin, the Old Bailey hears.
The court was told that Mr Lawrence, an 18-year-old student, was attacked by a group of white men as he and friend Duwayne Brooks waited for a bus in Eltham, south east London, in April 1993.
One of the men shouted racist abuse at them, the Old Bailey heard, “and at the same time the whole group rushed towards them”.
Mr Brooks ran away, but Mr Lawrence was surrounded.
“Stephen Lawrence did not manage to get away. The group quickly surrounded him. One witness described that he was swallowed up by the weight of numbers and forced to the ground,” the court heard.
The only discernible reason for the attack was the colour of his skin. Mark Ellison QC
Mr Ellison said the attackers were “a group of like-minded young white men who acted together in the execution of this attack. They reacted together as one on seeing two black men. The only discernible reason for the attack was the colour of his skin.”
He said the group “shared the same racial animosity or motivation”.
The court was told that a grey bomber jacket and multi-coloured cardigan were some of the clothes at the heart of the case.
Jurors were shown photographs of the items taken from suspect Gary Dobson following the murder of the black teenager 18 years ago. They also saw pictures of a pair of blue jeans and blue sweatshirt seized from the home of David Norris.
Mr Norris, 35, and Mr Dobson, 36, both from south London, deny murder.
Mark Ellison QC, prosecuting, said the case against them relied on new scientific evidence which came to light as a result of a 2007 cold case review.
He said: “It consists of the finding of textile fibres, blood and hair linked to Mr Lawrence on clothing taken from the defendants as part of the original investigation in 1993.”
The items had not been found originally because of techniques and practices of the time.
Mr Ellison said the defence argued that the samples ended up on the clothing through contamination during the subsequent police investigation. But the prosecution’s case was that they proved the defendants were members of the group that attacked Mr Lawrence.
Mr Lawrence’s parents, Doreen and Neville, were in court as the jury – one of whom is black – was sworn in. In 1999, Mr Lawrence’s death led to a public inquiry into the unsolved killing, which accused the police of “institutional racism”.