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Stephen Lawrence Family Are Victims of Police in Smear Campaign
Other | Monday 24th June 2013 | Judith
After Stephen Lawrence’s death, his family had not been treated with respect at all: their privacy was subject to police spies, who wanted to halt the campaign for Stephen’s murder. Metropolitan Police had been involved in spying on the family using undercover police officers, and despite the pain, frustration, trauma, anger and everything else this family had gone through, the police decided to carry this through with no consideration for the family whatsoever. It is clear that only until now, after 20 years, they had kept this as another secret.
Stephen Lawrence’s father spoke about the situation, and as he would be, he is ‘dismayed’ by what has gone and felt that his family were made more of a target for police than the culprits themselves. He mentions in a statement posted on the Channel 4 website, how he feels:
“I am dismayed about the new information that has come to light as a result of the Dispatches investigation. I've always felt that my family was under greater investigation than those guilty of killing my beloved Stephen. It is unthinkable that in the extremely dark days and months after my son's murder that my family were subject to such scrutiny….I've worked with the police since Stephen's death in good faith to bring the perpetrators to justice and help the police learn the lessons set out in the Macpherson report. I feel betrayed by this latest news and it has taken away the faith I had started to build in the police.”
Even though it has taken almost 20 years for sentencing to begin, I really do hope this family receive the justice they deserve, and that no more secrets and lies from the police are unravelled, as they have been through quite enough.
There will be an inquiry focusing on the Metropolitan police as ordered by the Prime Minister.
Dispatches will be aired tonight on Channel 4 @ 8pm, looking at what really went down.
By Judith Jones
