London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Feb 17, 2026

Nobody holds 'brutal' police to account - Doreen Lawrence

Nobody holds 'brutal' police to account - Doreen Lawrence

The Metropolitan Police has failed to change in the 30 years since the murder of her teenage son, Baroness Doreen Lawrence has told BBC News.

Weeks after a landmark report found evidence of continuing systemic racism, Baroness Lawrence said officers can be "as brutal as they want" without being held to account.

She told the BBC the findings of the Casey Review did not surprise her.

Black people are never seen as "people that should have justice", she added.

It is now 30 years since the murder of Stephen, and Baroness Lawrence sat down with me ahead of a memorial service for her son. She told me she had spoken to the Met's Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley and told him promises of change must be judged against the experience of the public.

Eighteen-year-old Stephen was killed in 1993 in an unprovoked racist attack by a gang at a bus stop in Eltham in south-east London. Two of his five suspected killers were jailed for murder nearly 20 years later.

Stephen Lawrence


The 1999 Macpherson Report into the failed investigation into Stephen's death found there had been "institutional racism" in the Metropolitan Police. The watershed report made 70 recommendations, many aimed at improving police attitudes to racism.

Twenty-four years on, Baroness Louise Casey's recent report once again found the force to be an institutionally racist organisation - as well as homophobic and misogynistic.

"I don't know how many more inquiries and how many reviews you need to have to say the same thing - and still no changes, and still denials," Baroness Lawrence says.

"Officers [are] able to be as brutal as they want, and nobody holds them to account."

Baroness Lawrence told me she did not believe she would ever see full justice for her son's murder. She says that without the family's constant pressure, even those two convictions in 2012 would not have happened.

"Within the black community, how we're treated, how crime's investigated, we're never seen as a group of people that should have justice," she says. "So everything that we've had, we've had to fight for - and continue to fight."

I have covered the Lawrence story since the 1990s and have watched and interviewed Doreen many times as she campaigned for justice for her son. The private person we will never know, but her public persona has changed considerably. Back then, she treated her encounters with the media as a necessary evil, her only means of keeping her family's cruel denial of justice in the public eye.

Day after day, during the Macpherson Inquiry hearings into the botched murder investigation, I would watch from the media pen as Doreen braced herself to run the gauntlet of the cameras waiting to catch her as she arrived. Her face was taut with the strain of daily exposure, and of having to relive, through the evidence, the tragedy that had befallen her - all in the full glare of publicity.

A private, guarded person, Doreen Lawrence was the most reluctant of figureheads, a bereaved mother who wore her grief heavily like armour, and who endured the spotlight only in the fervent hope of seeing her son's killers convicted - and the police exposed for their failings.

Thirty years later, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon has lost none of her steel. But she is a more relaxed person, more comfortable in her public role, and with an easy warmth. There is no rest for her though, and perhaps there never will be.

The bus stop in Eltham, London, where Stephen Lawrence was attacked


Despite the 2012 convictions of David Norris and Gary Dobson, there are other suspects who are still free.

Then, there has been the fallout - Baroness Lawrence discovered that police officers were spying on her and her family - and right now, she is involved in a legal case against the publisher of the Daily Mail, alleging it was illicitly gathering information about her.

She says that as long as the police continue to deny they did anything wrong, there will be no change. "The reality is that they didn't do everything that they could - they allowed the perpetrators to go free."

Sir Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of the Met, has admitted that there are severe shortcomings, but that the Met is not the same force that it was 20 or 25 years ago.

"I think the public should be the judge of that and not him," Baroness Lawrence says.

She adds that she has heard "a lot of rhetoric" from the commissioner, "but unless we see the changes ourselves, we're never going to believe that".

When she met Sir Mark after the publication of the Casey report, she told him the public needed to see improvements for themselves.

"But over the past - in Stephen's case - 30 years, nothing much has changed," she says.

Will she ever stop campaigning? "You need to use your voice," she replies. But the burden of it remains. "I don't want to be constantly in the public eye… at the end of the day, I just want to be, just me and my family."

Stephen Lawrence memorial stone


She feels that 30 years ago, society was not sufficiently shocked by Stephen's murder, and that although the Black Lives Matter movement has since "opened people's eyes up a little bit more", it has not led to permanent change.

She says she tries not to feel bitter, because that would affect her personally, but admits she feels "disappointed, upset, and at times I can be quite angry".

In 2018, Stephen's father, Neville Lawrence, said he had forgiven their son's killers as a way of helping him cope.

Baroness Lawrence feels that for her to do so, they would first need to admit to their crime. "But they've never owned up, and in their eyes, they've done nothing wrong."

Mr Lawrence has since said that their son's killers should confess before being considered for parole.

Baroness Lawrence continues to campaign for justice and racial equality and has set up the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation to help young people achieve their ambitions.

In 2018, then-Prime Minister Theresa May announced a national day of commemoration would take place on 22 April - the day of Stephen's murder - every year.

The 30th anniversary will be marked by a church service at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, and there will be events involving local schools, the Prince's Trust and the police cadets.

Privately, Baroness Lawrence will remember her son by laying flowers at the bus stop where he lost his life, as she does every year.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK Markets Signal Opportunity as Starmer Confronts Intensifying Political Pressure
Trump Criticises Newsom’s UK Climate Pact, Defends Federal Authority Over Foreign Engagements
UK’s Top Prosecutor Says ‘No One Is Above the Law’ as Police Review Claims Against Ex-Prince Andrew
Businessman Adam Brooks weighs in on the reports that the US is set to help Hamit Coskun flee the UK, over free speech concerns
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi Releases 3.5 Million Pages of Jeffrey Epstein Case Files
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio Comment on European allies report blaming Russia for killing late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny using toxin from poison dart frogs
Eighty-Year-Old Lottery Winner Sentenced to 16.5 Years for Drug Trafficking
UK Quran Burner May Receive Asylum in the US Amid Legal Challenges
Rubio Calls for Sweeping U.N. Reform, Saying It Has Failed to End Wars in Gaza and Ukraine
10,000 Condoms Distributed at Winter Olympics 2026 Athlete Village Depleted Within 72 Hours
Poland's President Advocates for Evaluating Independent Nuclear Weapons Development
Prince William Meets Saudi Crown Prince as Epstein-Andrew Fallout Casts Shadow
Starmer Calls for Renewed ‘Hard Power’ Investment at European Security Summit
UK Police Establish National Taskforce to Handle Domestic Epstein-Linked Allegations
UK Court Rules Ban on Palestine Action Unlawful in Major Free Speech Test
UK Faces Prospect of Net Migration Turning Negative as Economic Impact Looms
Mayor of Serdobsk in Russia’s Penza Region Resigns After Housing Certificates Granted to Migrant Family Trigger Public Outcry
Pentagon Reviews Anthropic Partnership After Claude AI Reportedly Used in Operation Targeting Nicolás Maduro
President Donald Trump and Hip-Hop’s Political Realignment: Pardons, Public Endorsements, and the Struggle Over Cultural Influence
China’s EV Makers Face Mandatory Return to Physical Buttons and Door Handles in Driver-Distraction Safety Overhaul
Goldman Sachs and DP World Executive Resignations: Elite-Reputation Risk and Corporate Governance Fallout From the Epstein Disclosures
‘Amelia’: The UK Government’s Anti-Extremism Game Villain Who Became a Protest Symbol
Peter Mandelson Asked to Testify Before US Congress Over Jeffrey Epstein Links
Walmart's Earnings and UK Economic Data Highlight Upcoming Financial Trends
UK Green Party Considering Proposal to Legalize Heroin for an Inclusive Society
SpaceX's New Vision: Lunar City Takes Precedence Over Mars Colonization
OpenAI and DeepCent Superintelligence Race: Artificial General Intelligence and AI Agents as a National Security Arms Race
Document Suggests Prince Andrew Shared UK Briefing on Afghan Investment Opportunities with Jeffrey Epstein
We will protect them from the digital Wild West.’ Another country will ban social media for under-16s
McDonald's Shortens Breakfast Hours in Australia Due to Egg Shortage
Heineken announces cut of 6,000 jobs due to declining beer demand
Beijing Brands UK Hong Kong Visa Expansion ‘Despicable and Reprehensible’ After Jimmy Lai Sentencing
Tesco Chief Warns UK Is ‘Sleepwalking’ Toward a Joblessness Crisis
Trump’s ‘Act of Great Stupidity’ Comment on UK Chagos Deal Reverberates Through Diplomacy and Strategy
New U.S. filings say Jeffrey Epstein repaid Les Wexner one hundred million dollars after theft allegation
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledges 2012 visit to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island as lawmakers scrutinise past ties
Helsing and Stark Defence loitering-munition drones and Germany’s race to industrialise battlefield autonomy
UK orders deletion of Courtsdesk court-data archive, reigniting the fight over who controls public justice records
UK Police Review Fresh Claims Involving Prince Andrew as Senior Royals Respond to Epstein Files
Keir Starmer’s Premiership Faces Unprecedented Strain as Epstein Fallout Deepens
Starmer Vows to Stay in Office as UK Government Faces Turmoil After Epstein Fallout
China and UK Signal Tentative Reset with Commitment to Steadier, Professionally Managed Relations
UK Confirms Imminent Increase in ETA Fee to £20 as Entry Rules Tighten
UK Signals Possible Seizure of Russia-Linked ‘Shadow Fleet’ Tanker in Escalation of Sanctions Enforcement
Epstein Scandal Piles Unprecedented Pressure on UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Leadership
UK’s ‘Most Romantic Village’ Celebrates Valentine’s Day and Explores the Festival’s Rich History
The Implications of Expanding Voting Rights to Non-EU Foreign Residents in France
Ghislaine Maxwell to Testify Before US Congress on February 9
Al.com Acquired by Crypto.com Founder for $70 Million
Apple iPhone Lockdown Mode blocks FBI data access in journalist device seizure
×