Stephen Lawrence suspects warned they should not ‘rest easy’ as two killers jailed

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe made his comments yesterday as Gary Dobson was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years and two months, and David Norris was ordered to serve 14 years and three months.

Later, a spokesman for the Met said police were already 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 sentencing,” he added.

Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll, who has been the senior officer in the case for a number of years, said officers would be visiting Dobson, 36, and Norris, 35, in prison to see whether they would be willing to assist the inquiry and said he remained “optimistic” about further progress being made in the case.

Mr Justice Treacy had earlier told the court Mr Lawrence’s murder was a “terrible and evil crime”. The 18-year-old A-level student was the victim of a racist attack in which he was set upon by a gang of five to six white youths and stabbed to death in Eltham, south-east London, in April 1993.

Stephen’s father Neville told reporters he hoped Norris and Dobson would “give up the rest of the people” involved.

The teenager’s mother Doreen said the sentences were “quite low”, but she appreciated the judge’s hands were tied in having to sentence them as juveniles, since they were under 18 at the time of the offence, and she would now “start moving on”.

It emerged yesterday that Norris and Dobson, who is already serving a five-year sentence for drug-dealing, are likely to be given extra protection in prison to prevent them from being attacked by fellow inmates. The racist killers could be held on wings reserved for “vulnerable” prisoners such as paedophiles and kept away from other inmates.

Fears over their safety were raised after Norris was attacked by Asian inmates while on remand at Belmarsh prison in south-east London. His nose was broken, he lost a number of teeth and suffered four broken ribs in the attack in February.

Norris had to use a hearing device to be able to listen to evidence.

He and Dobson were taken from the Old Bailey back to Belmarsh prison yesterday and could be transferred to other category A prisons in the near future.

In court after sentencing, the judge called forward Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll. He told him the public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Stephen’s death had “shamed and humbled” the Met, but praised the hard work done in recent years.

Mr Treacy went on: “At least a measure of justice has been achieved at last. However, the convictions of Gary Dobson and David Norris will not, I hope, close the file on this murder. On the evidence before the court, there are still three or four other killers of Stephen Lawrence at large.

“Just as advances in science have brought two people to justice, I hope the Metropolitan Police will be alert to future lines of inquiry, not only based on developments in science but perhaps also information from those who have been silent so far, wherever they may be.”

The courtroom fell silent as Dobson and Norris were sentenced for the teenager’s murder.

“A totally innocent 18-year-old youth on the threshold of a promising life was brutally cut down in the street in front of eyewitnesses by a racist, thuggish gang,” the judge told them. “You were both members of that gang. I have no doubt at all that you fully subscribed to its views and attitudes.”

He said the murder was committed “for no other reason than racial hatred”.

The evidence in the trial could not prove who wielded the knife, but the judge said that whoever used it had done so with Dobson and Norris’s “knowledge and approval”.

Neither of them had shown “the slightest regret or remorse” since the murder and they had both lied to the court.

As the judge rose to leave, a few people began clapping in the public gallery.