Stephen Lawrence trial hears from first witness

A jury in the trial of Gary Dobson and David Norris, who both deny murdering Stephen Lawrence in south east London 18 years ago, has heard from two witnesses.

One of the witnesses said that a group of white men kicked and punched Stephen Lawrence in an “unprovoked” attack.

Health worker Royston Westbrook, the first witness to give evidence in the trial, told the jury he was at a bus stop in Eltham in 1993 when he saw a group of white men “collide” with Mr Lawrence and his friend Duwayne Brooks.

Mr Westbrook said he overheard the two black teenagers at a bus stop before they decided to walk to another bus stop.

“Stephen and Duwayne were stood right by the bus stop. They were talking about football, and just general chit-chat,” Mr Westbrook recalled.

The witness told the court that after the two boys walked down the road, they turned back and “some boys appeared on the opposite side of the road”.

He said: “Duwayne and Stephen started running back towards the bus stop…the boys on the opposite side of the road started to run.”

He and two other people waiting at the bus stop assumed it meant a bus was coming.

But then the gang walked diagonally across the road and “they just collided” with Stephen and Duwayne.

‘Run Stephen’

“They grabbed Duwayne Brooks’ wrist but he turned his wrist and just pulled away. Duwayne ran towards the bus stop where we were standing and turned round and shouted something like ‘Leg it, Steve’ or ‘Run, Stephen,” Mr Westbrook recalled.

Mr Brooks managed to run away but Mr Lawrence was forced to the ground.

Mr Westbrook told the jury: “I saw them surround Stephen and he went down, basically through sheer weight of numbers, in the middle of them.”

The court was told that one of the attackers then kicked Mr Lawrence whilst he was on the ground. “He lifted his leg backwards to give him a good kick. As he did that, Stephen came up between his legs, struggled up and ran up the road in the same direction as Duwayne Brooks had gone.

“I think that whoever was doing the kicking was aiming to give a good kick so he lifted his leg right up but Stephen saw the opportunity to get out.”

‘A completely unprovoked attack’

The witness, who was on his way home from working at Grove Park Hospital that night, did not see any weapon and thought the gang had only managed to punch Mr Lawrence.

He said: “It was so quick, it really was quick – it was about 10 seconds – and my impression going away from that was that they managed to punch him and that was it.”

Moments later, while he got on the bus Mr Lawrence had been waiting for, he saw the stricken teenager lying on the ground.

He said: “I could just see him lying on the floor and some sort of commotion.”

Mr Westbrook added: “From my viewpoint, it was a completely unprovoked attack. They did nothing to justify it.”

A youth who got on the bus with him said: “It looks like they got him because he was black, doesn’t it?,” Mr Westbrook recalled.

Second witness

Frenchwoman Alexandra Marie, who was working in England as an au pair for six months at the time of the murder, told the jury that Mr Lawrence did not fight back when he was attacked.

She was waiting at a bus stop with Mr Westbrook and another man when Mr Lawrence was killed.

She said: “There were some white men who were like kicking him and holding him at the same time, but the young man didn’t reply. He tried to protect himself.”

There were “several” attackers – more than three – but she could not say precisely how many.

Ms Marie also told the court there was not much shouting during the attack.

“I didn’t have the impression it was very violent aggression because there was not a lot of shouting. But I didn’t feel at ease.”