Two found guilty of notorious 1993 racist killing in London

Jan 3, 2012, 15:39 GMT

London - Two men were found guilty Tuesday of a racist killing of a young black man in London nearly 20 years ago, one of the most notorious unsolved murders in recent British history.

Stephen Lawrence, aged 18, was stabbed to death by a gang of white youths in an unprovoked attack while waiting for a bus in south-east London in April 1993.

Five men, including the two found guilty Tuesday, were initially acquitted of the crime, after a police investigation became so bungled it led to an official inquiry that branded London's Metropolitan Police 'institutionally racist.'

After new forensic evidence, Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, were found guilty at the Old Bailey, the central criminal court of England and Wales, on Tuesday.

They are set to be sentenced on Wednesday.

Only a long campaign by Lawrence's parents, Neville and Doreen, kept the case in the public eye, and resulted in the retrial.

The Metropolitan Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Cressida Dick said after the verdict that it was still not 'the end of the road' in the search for the remaining killers.

'We do, of course, acknowledge that there were five people involved on the night that Stephen was murdered,' she said.

'We have not brought all those people to justice. So if we get new evidence, if we have further opportunities, we will respond to that.'

A report in 1999 into the police failings during the initial investigation found the police guilty of mistakes and 'institutional racism.'

Doreen and Neville Lawrence wept as the verdict was read out. Dobson protested his innocence as he was led from court saying: 'You have condemned an innocent man here, I hope you can live with yourselves.'