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The tragic murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 led to the immediate surveillance of his bereaved parents by the police, according to testimony at a public hearing. The Metropolitan force reportedly started monitoring the Lawrence family shortly after the 18-year-old was killed in a racist attack, as revealed by Barrister Ifeanyi Odogwu on behalf of Neville Lawrence. Despite the family’s pursuit of justice, they found themselves under scrutiny from state authorities during their quest for closure.
Details emerged at the undercover policing inquiry that officers gathered personal information about the Lawrence family, including the breakdown of their marriage and the civil claim they filed against the Met following their son’s death. Odogwu disclosed that the surveillance, which began in the aftermath of Stephen’s murder, continued for years and even extended to the Macpherson Inquiry in 1999. The revelation that intimate details about the couple were shared with officers was deemed “truly abhorrent and shocking” by the barrister.
Neville Lawrence condemned the surveillance on his family as both “perverse as it is offensive.” Testimony at the inquiry highlighted that the information collected about the Lawrences did not serve the supposed purpose of preventing public disorder, which was the stated objective of the surveillance unit. Odogwu emphasized that during highly sensitive periods like the search for Stephen’s killers and the Macpherson Inquiry, resources should have been focused on the case, not monitoring the grieving family.
In a statement to the inquiry, Neville Lawrence expressed his outrage at the implication that his family posed a threat worthy of surveillance. He rejected the notion that their grief and home were viewed with suspicion, emphasizing that such actions were unacceptable and unforgivable. The inquiry shed light on the intrusive and unjust surveillance of the Lawrence family, raising important questions about the misuse of state power and the impact on victims seeking justice
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