Scientist 'reluctant' to test for fibres from Lawrence clothes on suspects

A forensic scientist today admitted he had been "reluctant" to carry out tests for fibres on clothing belonging to Stephen Lawrence murder suspects.

Adrian Wain also said lab workers did not search for tiny blood stains and even if they had, there was little they could have done with them in both 1993 and 1995 when the testing took place.

He told the Old Bailey: "Searching for tiny microscopic amounts of blood just wasn't in our thinking."

Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, are accused of taking part in a gang attack on the 18-year-old A-level student in April 1993. The pair are on trial after a forensic breakthrough in 2008 when a mixture of Mr Lawrence's blood, hair and fibres from his clothes were found on their clothing.

The court heard that the initial two scientific tests on the clothing did not find a speck of blood, later found on the collar of Dobson's jacket.

Mr Wain said: "I would not have searched for the small stains and even if we had found it there's not much we could have done with it."

He said that when DNA testing was introduced in 1994, the minimum size of stain that they could have analysed was 3mm square.

Mr Wain added: "We looked for the transfer of fibres from Stephen Lawrence to the suspects and potentially from the suspects to Stephen Lawrence.

Given that there was a two-week gap between the offence and the seizure of the clothes I was reluctant to do the transfer of fibres from Stephen on to a suspect."

Dobson and Norris deny murdering Mr Lawrence.
The defence claim their clothes have been subjected to cross-contamination because of "primitive" methods used by police to handle and store items. The trial continues.