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Anorak News | Blood Money

Blood Money

by | 26th, July 2006

“DAMNED,” says the front page of the Mirror. And there are pictures, arranged in a quincunx, of the five men accused of killing Stephen Lawrence in 1993.

Many years have passed since the young black man, aged 18, was murdered at a bus stop in South London. No-one has ever been convicted of this hideous crime but there are five suspects.

To give them their dues, the five are bothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, Luke Knight, David Norris and Gary Dobson.

All deny killing Lawrence. But the Mirror has heard “sensational” new evidence that questions their claims to innocence.

The paper has seen a BBC documentary, The Boys Who Killed Stephen Lawrence, which sheds new light on the suspects’ alibis.

The Sun also leads with this story, and hints at what may have occurred in its front-page headline: “LAWRENCE COP ‘TOOK BUNG’.”

The BBC TV documentary, which will be aired tonight, features claims that a detective investigating the murder took money from Clifford Norris to protect his son.

The cop is former Detective Sergeant John Davidson, and he is said to have received money from “notorious criminal” Clifford Norris to obstruct the inquiry.

And the whistleblower is another former policeman. Ex-Detective Constable Neil Putnam tells the BBC, as reported in the Sun: “Davidson told me he was looking after Norris and that to me meant that he was protecting him – protecting his family against any arrest and any conviction.”

The Sun says Putnam is a “bent cop” who turned “supergrass” to help expose police corruption. And he has more to say. “From my conversation that I had with John Davidson on that day I would say that John Davidson was receiving cash from Clifford Norris.” He claims Davidson described it as a “good little earner”.

And now, as the Mail reports, the victim’s family have asked for a new police inquiry into the murder.

Stephen’s father Neville says that “it is very disturbing. But it shows that the issue of police corruption can no longer be ignored. It must be investigated.”

Indeed it must. But by whom?



Posted: 26th, July 2006 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink