Lawrence brother tells of loss

Murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence's brother has spoken about the night he died (Family Handout/PA)
12 April 2012

The brother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has spoken of the night he died and how he stood at the police cordon with no idea that his elder sibling had been killed behind it.

Stuart Lawrence said he tries not to think about his brother's attackers, telling the Mail on Sunday he 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, which the judge said was a "terrible and evil crime".

Speaking of the night Stephen died, Mr Lawrence described how neighbours had knocked on his family's front door in Plumstead, south-east London, and told them he 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 out to find out what had happened.

He said: "At first, I was more curious than anything. Stephen in a fight? It just didn't happen. It wasn't like that. He was always the diplomat, the one who worked around trouble."

He said that when he went out to the scene of the crime and arrived at the cordon he was taken home by the police officers, which he believes they did because he had told them his name.

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. "He was everything I wanted to be. All his teachers thought he was a golden child and to me he was a role model. I was always trying to be as good as him."

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