Following the sentencing of Dobson and Norris for the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, police say they have received new information on other suspects.
On Wednesday evening, a spokesman for the Metropolitan police said the force was looking into information they have received in the past 24 hours.
“We can confirm that we have received a number of telephone calls in light of the verdicts and today’s sentencing,” he said. “This information will be evaluated.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Gary Dobson and David Norris were found guilty of murdering Stephen in south London nearly 19 years ago. The 18-year-old was fatally stabbed by a gang of white youths.
Dobson, 36, and Norris, 35, received juvenile sentences because they were 17 and 16 when the murder took place. Dobson was jailed for a minimum of 15 years and two months; Norris for 14 years and three months.
The racist nature of the attack was seen as an aggravating factor. They were detained at her majesty’s pleasure, the form of murder sentence for under-18s.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Treacy said the murder was a “terrible and evil crime”, adding: “A totally innocent 18-year-old youth on the threshold of a promising life was brutally cut down in the street in front of eye-witnesses by a racist, thuggish gang.
“You were both members of that gang. I have no doubt at all that you fully subscribed to its views and attitudes.” He said that undercover police footage of the pair using racist obscenities showed “disgusting and shocking scenes”, and that the murder was committed “for no other reason than racial hatred”.
Mr Justice Treacy said the evidence in the trial could not prove who wielded the knife, but he added that whoever used it had done so with Dobson and Norris’s “knowledge and approval”.
He said: “Whilst the attack on Stephen Lawrence himself clearly could not have been premeditated since it was a chance encounter, I cannot accept that a crime of this type simply arose on the spur of the moment. The way in which the attack took place strongly suggests to me that your group, if not actively seeking out a victim, was prepared, if the opportunity arose, to attack in the way in which you did.”
Previously, the home secretary was responsible for determining the minimum term for offenders under this sentence. But the law was changed in 2000 after a ruling by the European court of human rights in the case of James Bulger’s killers, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. The trial judge now carries the responsibility for setting the minimum term for juvenile murderers.
Before sentencing, Scotland Yard Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe vowed to hunt down the others responsible for Stephen’s murder, saying “the other people involved in the murder of Stephen Lawrence should not rest easily in their beds”.
The other people involved in the murder … should not rest easily in their beds. Bernard Hogan-Howe, Met Commissioner
Mr Hogan-Howe said the Met was “actively reviewing the consequences of what opportunities might be presented” by the guilty verdicts.
“I’m praying that these people now realise that they’ve been found out and say to themselves, ‘yes, I did this awful deed, but I wasn’t alone in that action that night and there are other people also guilty of what I’ve done’, and name them,” he said. “I hope before the sentence is passed, they will talk and give the rest of these people that killed my son up …”
On Wednesday, he said the sentencing was “only one step in a long, long journey” and expressed hope that the other killers would now be brought to justice.
In 1993, Neil Acourt, Jamie Acourt and Luke Knight were arrested along with Norris and Dobson in connection with Stephen’s murder.
The original investigation into the murder was criticised by a public inquiry, which branded the Metropolitan Police institutionally racist.
More than a decade later, a team of forensic scientists was called in to look again at the evidence. They discovered tiny amounts of blood, hair and fibres on clothing seized from the homes of Dobson and Norris, which led to a successful prosecution.