Lawrence murder trial – accused pictured days after killing
The Old Bailey hears that two men accused of murdering Stephen Lawrence were photographed by a police officer just days afer his death, despite previous claims that they did not know one another.
The court had heard that when Gary Dobson was arrested in May 1993, he told police he did not know David Norris. Today, the jury was shown pictures of them together at the time. Dobson, 36, and Norris, 35, deny murdering Mr Lawrence, a black A-Level student, in Eltham, south-east London.
The jury also heard from former Metropolitan Police detective constable Robert Crane, who was questioned about how exhibits were handled in 1993. He said he “had a degree of forensic awareness” and understood the potential for cross-contamination. The jurors were told that exhibit bags could be left open while officers were waiting for a photographer.
In my opinion he was nervous at the time. Graham Cooke
Mr Crane was not aware of any special procedures to prevent fibres or fragments being passed on to an exhibit by police officers when they opened and resealed packages. Fibres or flakes could have ended up on the outside of an evidence bag when it was resealed, the jury was told.
Retired police officer Graham Cooke said Dobson had appeared nervous when, as a 17-year-old, he questioned him at his parents’ home in Eltham three days after Mr Lawrence was killed. “In my opinion he was nervous at the time,” he told the Old Bailey.
Mr Lawrence was attacked by a gang of white youths and stabbed to death. Afterwards, Mr Cooke carried out house-to-house inquiries and asked Dobson whether he had been at the scene of the murder on the night of the killing.
He said: “Dobson said no, he was at home all night studying, he arrived home from college at 5.30pm, that his mother and father were indoors at the time. He said that he did not know the victim, he had heard about the incident from the papers.”
Detective Constable Steven Pye, who collected Mr Lawrence’s belongings from the hospital after he died, told the jury that the items were in plastic hospital bags and he placed them up in police paper sacks using rubber gloves.
The court was told that some of the paper bags were not sealed at the hospital because blood stains on the items were still wet.
‘Contamination’
Timothy Roberts QC, defending Dobson, said: “Is the upshot of all of this, however it happened, that the clothing from Stephen Lawrence that was most heavily bloodstained, and therefore might contaminate other things, remained in unsealed packages whilst you dealt with it?
Mr Pye replied: “The most heavily bloodstained would appear to have been placed in paper sacks and folded over, yes.” The jury was told that Mr Pye had a stack of paper bags with him at the hospital that could have picked up fibres or blood flakes on the outside.
Mr Roberts said: “By touching all of the packages with the same pair of gloves and folding over the tops of all the brown paper bags you could have distributed blood and fibres from each of these items on to the outside of the packages.”
Mr Pye said: “The items were placed in bags with the same pair of gloves. My recollection is that the bags were sealed at some point in the night, but I can’t remember when.”
