One of Stephen Lawrence's murderers has been set up to first give in his involvement in the racist attack while making an offer for freedom.
David Norris, 48, has always denied that it is involved in the murder of the teenager 1993. But while he makes a bid for freedom prior to a conditional hearing, a statement revealed that it was released last night that this has now changed.
'Recent reports suggest now that he accepted that he was present on the spot and beat the victim, but claims that he did not use the knife, Peter Rook KC Vice chairman Peter Rook wrote KC.
“He does not accept that he has racist views.”
In a great victory for the mail and the Lawrence family, the conditional hearing of Norris will be heard in public.
Norris fought against such a request from this newspaper and argued that opening the hearing would increase the risk to his safety for this.
But the Lord Rook ruled that his case had to be submitted in public and in his opinion extensively quoted from an application from the e -mail that argued that without press investigation it would have been unlikely that Stephen's murderers would have had to do.
Five men were initially arrested about the murder, in Eltham, Southeast Londs, with Norris, 16 at the time, and Gary Dobson, 16 then only 49 now, only brought to court after a late forensic breakthrough.
David Norris (photo) has always denied his involvement in the 1993 murder, but a statement released last night while he wants to win, it says that this has now changed
Stephen Lawrence (photo) was murdered in a racist attack in Eltham, Southeast London
Neville Lawrence (photo), the father of Stephen Lawrence said earlier that he will accept the release if Norris apologizes and 'shows that he is a changed man'
Both received lifelong sentences in 2012.
It followed a long campaign of the post to secure Justice for Stephen, including a front page from 1997 in which Norris was mentioned as one of his murderers.
The application at the Parole Board also quoted from a recent interview with Stephen's father, Neville, in which the 82-year-old said he would be willing to accept Norris's release from prison if he apologized and showed that he was a changed man.
The e -mail argued that a public hearing would offer the murderer the platform to express remorse for his actions.
The Lawrence family supported a public hearing, but lawyers for Norris argued that the murderer, who has been established PTSD, would suffer from 'emotional stress' if a hearing were kept in public.
They also argued that it would increase the risk for his safety within the priestage, since he was attacked three times while he was locked up and that he would be unable to give his 'best proof' if his comments were made public.
But the Lord Rook discovered that the case of the public interest remained because of its impact on the police, which was accepted that not all involved were brought to court and that the public will be interested to know whether Norris now accepts his responsibility for the murder of Stephen.
The criminal justice system had clearly failed in earlier phases with regard to this case, he said, with the subsequent Macpherson report in the investigation to make several recommendations still relevant today.
In 1998, David Norris, in addition to four other young people who were sued but not convicted of the murder of Stephen at that time, was pelted with eggs after leaving a public in -case police handling of the case
“There is a clear public interest in seeing the conditional assessment in a good judicial manner with evidence-based decisions about risks,” said Rook.
Norris' time in prison has not been without problems that will probably count against him when the panel makes his decision.
He was illegally caught using a smartphone in prison in 2022, which he used to take a pathogenic selfie from his cell on Dartmoor's e-wing, which houses supposedly well-behaved prisoners.
The phone was recovered from his body after he was Barntgen, and a police investigation into how he obtained the device was launched.
A date still has to be set for the hearing.
Stephen's father called on Norris to name the other murderers of his son and to tell the truth about what happened for the first time in the night of his murder.
Neville Lawrence, 82 spoke from his house in Jamaica the Daily Mail for his fight to ensure that his conditional hearing would be heard in public.
“Thanks to the Daily Mail for doing this service for us,” he said.
On the 30th anniversary of the death of Stephen, Keir Starmer joined Stuart Lawrence, former Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and mayor of London Sadiq Khan at a memorial service
“Without your attraction, this would have stayed behind closed doors.”
Mr Lawrence added: 'If he makes an explanation, the public will hopefully finally hear everything that happened.
“He knows who was with him.
'And he has been in prison all the time, so it is his chance to say that he was not only he was alone, there were others with him. And call them.
“I don't think he's going to do that, but that's what I want him to do.
“This is his chance to get clean and see what happened that night.”
Mr. Lawrence said he was planning to attend the hearing and his lawyer would read a statement describing the effect of Stephen's murder of the family.
“He will be able to walk away and live for the rest of his life when he behaves.
Stephen can't do that, “he said.
'I feel that if someone is lucky to have that chance of conditional release, they have to say that I am sorry, I will never get into trouble again and they should admit what they were doing.
'If he admits it and said how sorry he was and he calls the other people I could accept him who came out.
'Nobody who was there that night once told the truth about what happened or even admitted that they were there.
“If he does that, it will be the first time.
'If he admitted that he was there and would make sure that my son lost his life, I would accept what happened and it would seem to me that he was a changed person, but if he just says nothing, I can't accept it [his release]. '
