Senior Met. Officer To Be Taken Off The Stephen Lawrence Murder Investigation.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2534483/Stephen-Lawrences-mother-furious-detective-helped-secure-murder-convictions-taken-case.html

Victim's mother made a Baroness? Special force set aside to continue to investigate this case? Demands for meetings with senior Scotland Yard officer so as to question their decision to step down a soon to be retired officer? etc etc.

Is all this to somehow apologise for the initial bodged Stephen Lawrence murder investigation, or is this something most other mothers of murdered victims can come to expect?

/// 'The MPS has a dedicated team of detectives that continues to investigate the murder of Stephen Lawrence to bring any remaining offenders to justice. ///

/// 'A number of these detectives have exceeded their 30 years police service and are due for natural retirement. As part of our succession planning and to provide resilience, new officers will join the team in early 2014 and replace those due for retirement.' ///

[New Judge]

The continued “fury” of Baroness Lawrence is getting on my nerves.

Whilst it is true that the Met made a complete balls-up of the original investigation into her son’s murder, since then it seems that far more time has been spent on the case than just about any other. I can understand their frustration and have nothing but contempt for Stephen’s killers. But the Lawrence family must accept, unfortunate as it may seem, that in the UK there is the small matter of evidence being required to secure a conviction. They had already been dealt a harsh lesson in that respect when their private prosecution - launched against legal advice - collapsed. Only a fundamental change in the law allowed for the two people who have been convicted to be tried for a second time. I’m quite sure that had sufficient evidence been available to convict the remaining suspects they would have been in the dock by now.

DCI Driscoll is due to retire this year. It is not unreasonable for his employers to get him to hand over his current work to his successors. As I understand it there is no indication that the investigation will end. But Baroness Lawrence's fury continues to know no bounds as she is indicates that she is quite entitled to call the tune when it comes to the deployment of Met resources.

There are many, many unsolved murders and other very serious crimes outstanding in this country. Few if any of them have the luxury of a large team of detectives working on them more than twenty years after they occurred. And none of them have the sort of input from victims' families that seems to be afforded to the Lawrences.

[FredPuli43]

And Madeleine McCann can't be the only child abducted abroad or here, NJ, but once the tabloids get hold of a story, whether or not encouraged by a parent, and it captures the public mind, there is no end to it.

Don't know about others, though I can guess, but, if something like that happened to my child, I'd be on to the press straight away and wouldn't let the matter lie.

[jake-the-peg]

Hmm

I can't imagine why the continued interest of the botched Hillsboro disaster doesn't continue to receive AOG's ongoing interest and exasperation.

I mean is there something special about the Lawrence case in particular?

[bazwillrun]

"There are many, many unsolved murders and other very serious crimes outstanding in this country. Few if any of them have the luxury of a large team of detectives working on them more than twenty years after they occurred. And none of them have the sort of input from victims' families that seems to be afforded to the Lawrences. "

as if we couldnt guess why !

[mikey4444]

We don't have to guess why baz. The reason is because this was a race-related attack, on a young man, who had done no wrong. In fact, race wasn't only a factor, it was the only reason he was killed.

The Police made such a botched attempt at investigating because the subsequent investigation found them to be stuffed full of ignorant buffoons and racists, which prevented them from doing their job properly.

Only recently we have learned that instead of getting on with the job in hand, the Police, for ever whinging about not having enough resources, decided it would be a good idea to waste some of those precious resources to mount an undercover investigation of the Lawrence family, when they should have been investigating the murderers themselves.

Its not often you see me praise the DM but that paper did more to advance the investigation into Lawrence's murder in one headline, than the Police ever did in years of faffing about.

That's the reason baz, and others.

[bazwillrun]

"That's the reason baz" you can believe what you want, but not everybody is so gullible

[New Judge]

But how long does Baroness Lawrence expect the police to continue to devote sizeable chunks of their diminishing resources to a cause which, whilst very important to her, seems to have no realistic prospect of progress beyond the two convictions already secured?

I'm sure hell hath no fury like a mother who has seen her child murdered, but her fury must be tempered by some realism.

[browntrout]

You can't really blame the Baroness. but you can blame the police ( and more likely the politicians pulling the strings) for lacking the guts to say enough is enough.

[Peter Pedant]

.

I have sympathy with Mrs Lawrence now Lady Lawrence.

There is a certain amount of key-note hand wringing and shoulder shrugging, and I think I would be infuriated - having lost both a son and a husband.

and as for the McCanns - didnt the portuguese chief of police decide early on they had done and so all he did was sit on a tuffet and twiddle his thumbs. and then finding he was wrong, he wrote abook saying they had done it.
again, I would be ungrateful towards the Port. police if they had done that to me.

as freddie has pointed out before - it all depends if you have been verballed ever before..... life changing experience that