Brother of Stephen Lawrence talks about night of killing

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

Mr Lawrence described how neighbours knocked on his family’s front door in Plumstead, south-east London, and told them Stephen 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 leaving him at home with his younger sister, Georgina, but he later rode out on his bike to see what was going on.

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.

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.