Stephen Lawrence suspect Matthew Wright 'told other victim he had killed before'

03 November 2023 , 07:57

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Matthew White died in 2021 (Image: BBC)

A sixth suspect in the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence reportedly said he had killed before as he tried to stab a black security guard.

Mr Lawrence was murdered by a group of five or six racist attackers in south-east London in 1993, but only two of his killers have faced justice – Gary Dobson and David Norris were jailed for life in 2012. The BBC in June named Matthew White, who died aged 50 in 2021, as the sixth suspect in the case.

The broadcaster now reports that a former victim of White’s said he told him in a 2015 attack there had been no consequences for killing “Stephen”. Bethel Ikpeze told the BBC he was working as a security officer in Lidl when he spotted White try to shoplift.

Stephen Lawrence pictured (PA)

He said White, a heroin user, responded with swearing and a stream of racist slurs when he was challenged, before attempting to stab Mr Ikpeze with a bloody needle. Mr Ikpeze said he managed to restrain White until police arrived as White continued to abuse him with extreme racist language.

He told the broadcaster: “I asked him, ‘Do you want to kill me? Do you want to stab me?’ He said, ‘Yes, I will kill you.'” According to Mr Ikpeze, White made multiple references to having killed before, saying “I’ve done it before” and “we have done it before”, along with the name “Stephen”.

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Mr Ikpeze said he informed police of the exchange with White and uniformed officers said they would “run a check”. White was jailed for four months but did not face charges for attempting to harm the guard or racially abusing him.

In a statement to the BBC, the Metropolitan Police said it understood that Mr Ikpeze had “told officers that White had shouted racial abuse and made threats to kill” in 2015. The statement said: “We aim to take all reports of racial abuse seriously and we apologise if this was not investigated as it should have been.”

Tim Hanlon