DOBSON: JURY SELECTION UNDERWAY IN STEPHEN LAWRENCE MURDER CASE

A panel of 24 potential jurors was selected today (Mon) at the Old Bailey to try two men accused of murdering black teenager Stephen Lawrence 18 years ago.

Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, allegedly stabbed the 18-year-old at a bus stop in Eltham, southeast London, on 22 April, 1993.

Stephen was with his friend Duwayne Brooks in Well Hall Road shortly after 10.35pm when he was stabbed twice in the upper torso.
 
He collapsed on the pavement and died later in hospital.

Dobson and Norris were arrested in September last year and were subsequently charged.

The pair appeared in the dock of court 16 for trial this morning.

Stephen’s mother Doreen Lawrence and father Neville, who have since separated, sat a few feet away were in the well of the court

A panel of 49 potential jurors were brought in to court ahead of the selection process.

They were warned by trial judge Mr Justice Treacy the case could in to the new year and were asked to serve up to January 17.

There is also a possibility the trial will sit in the three days between Christmas and New Year.

Already excluded from the list of potential jurors was anybody who lives in the Lewisham, Greenwich, Bexley, Bexleyheath and Bromley postcodes.

The judge then excluded anybody who worked for the Metropolitan police or anyone who had a close family member or friend who is either currently employed or has been in the last 18 years.

The same applied for the Crown Prosecution Service, the Forensic Science Service and anybody working within forensics.

‘The trial we are going to be concerned with is concerned with the alleged murder by these two defendants in the dock, along with other people not before the court, of a young black man called Stephen Lawrence.

‘Stephen Lawrence was killed in south London in April 1993 and this case is concerned with his death.

‘It maybe that when you heard the named Stephen Lawrence it would have rung a bell with some of you.

‘There has been and no doubt will be during the course of the trial quite a lot of press interest in this case and in order to have a fair trial I must be satisfied that members of the  jury panel are people who are independent and people who do not have any link of any sort to the case which might disqualify them from sitting as independent jurors.’

He asked the prospective jurors if they or anyone they knew had been a potential witness in the case, or whether they had seen news bulletins this morning and done research on the internet about the case.

The judge said: ‘It may be many of you have some general knowledge about the Stephen Lawrence case, it may ring a bell with you or when you hear more detail about it as you will if you have to serve on the jury it may well then ring a bell.

‘If a person has some general knowledge of the case that is not something I would regard as disqualifying any person from sitting in this case.’

He said the case would undoubtedly receive media coverage as it had done in the past.

‘We expect our jurors to set aside anything they may have learnt in a general way about the case because they are in a court room trying the case on the evidence, the evidence they have seen and heard in the court room.

‘There is no reason why that general principle should not apply in this case.

‘If you have heard of matters relating to the Stephen Lawrence that in itself is not a problem, if you are a somebody who has taken matters a step further and have, for example, close knowledge of the case because something excited your interest in the past or if you have detailed knowledge of the case or matters relating to it or if you have some association with it in any way…we need to know now.’

Mark Ellison, QC, for the prosecution is due to open the case tomorrow (Tues) after the final 12 jurors are sworn in to try the case.

Dobson and Norris both deny murder.
mfl

ENDS