Killer’s bitter and racist lies exposed during fresh trial

He said during his trial that he was “disgusted” at the racist language he had used in the film, secretly recorded at his flat in 1994, and denied being racially prejudiced.

The footage showed him repeatedly using racial slurs, and telling a story about threatening a black colleague with a Stanley knife during a scuffle.

He told his friends, using obscenities, how he confronted the man and threatened to attack him with the blade, stating he would “slice this down you seven times”.

During the Old Bailey trial, a suit-clad Dobson often had supporters in the public gallery.

Jurors rejected his alibi that he had been at the Dobson family home at the time Mr Lawrence was killed, even though his parents and their long term friend gave evidence that he had been present.

They heard that he lied to police about knowing David Norris, in an attempt to distance himself from his co-defendant.

He also lied about how he had heard the news of Mr Lawrence’s death, trying to conceal the fact that he had visited Neil and Jamie Acourt on the night of the attack.

Dobson lived in Phineas Pett Road, Eltham in 1993, only minutes from the location where Mr Lawrence was fatally stabbed in the street.

At the time Dobson was studying IT at a college near Covent Garden, and later went on to work as an electrician’s mate.

Dobson said being accused of the murder made him “bitter” and was responsible for fuelling the hate-filled behaviour filmed by police in 1994.

The 36-year-old was acquitted of Mr Lawrence’s murder in 1996 after a private prosecution against him, Neil Acourt and Luke Knight failed to achieve any convictions.

However in 2005, laws governing double jeopardy changed, so that a defendant could be re-tried if new and compelling evidence should become available.

In April last year, the Court of Appeal ruled that Dobson’s acquittal could be quashed and he could face trial for Mr Lawrence’s death in a fresh prosecution.

He was already in prison at that stage, having been jailed for five years in the previous summer for supplying a class B drug and possessing a class B drug with intent to supply.