One of Stephen Lawrence’s killers has said he will not discuss the other members of the gang involved in the murder, despite calls from the victim’s family to name them.
David Norris spoke publicly on Tuesday for the first time about his role in the murder in 1993 to apologise, adding that the guilt of what happened “weighs heavy on my shoulders”.
But when pushed to reveal more about the others involved, Norris said that in an “ideal world” he would give Mr Lawrence’s family “every detail” but that it would put him and his family at risk.
It came after a legal representative read a statement for Mr Lawrence’s father, Neville, that said “justice has not been done” if Norris is released without naming the other members of the gang who murdered his son.
A parole board hearing is taking place in public on Tuesday and Wednesday, and another day in private on Friday, to decide whether the 49-year-old should be freed or moved to an open prison.
Norris was convicted of Mr Lawrence’s murder at the Old Bailey in 2011 and jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years and three months in January 2012.
The minimum term expired in December 2024, and this is the first time that he has been considered for parole.
The hearing, which was streamed from a prison to a room in the Royal Courts of Justice, was told that the Justice Secretary opposed release.
Stephen’s mother, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, was among those watching the video stream on Tuesday.
Norris was allowed to read a statement before being questioned, saying he wanted to “express my genuine remorse for the death of the victim in my case”.
He said: “I will go to my grave with that guilt in my heart”, adding that “the events of that night 32 years ago should never have happened”.
Norris said Mr Lawrence had done nothing to provoke the gang who killed him, and he apologised for the suffering he had caused to Mr Lawrence’s friend Duwayne Brooks, who was with him on the night he died.
He added: “They were only trying to make their way home and everyone, regardless of what age or race they may be, should be able to go about their business safely.
“I was a 16-year-old horrible, violent, racist, young man who had come so far off the rails that there was a high possibility I might never be back on the right track.”
Norris said he grew up in an environment where he said he had to be “tough to survive”, as “any sign of weakness made you vulnerable to the bullies of the area”.
When they were young, he said he and his friends were “kids who didn’t see colour”.
As he got older, he wanted to emulate his criminal father Clifford Norris, adding: “I had to try and be bigger and badder than him.”
Norris also apologised to black and ethnic minority communities for the feeling caused after Mr Lawrence’s murder, which he said created a “large ripple effect” which “negatively impacted many people”.
Recalling the murder, Norris said he had been on a date and saw a group of people that he knew.
He said he was the last person to punch Mr Lawrence, and had hit him two or three times.
Norris told the hearing that while he did not have violence in the front of his mind, he was ready for it “at the drop of a hat”.
He said there was a “gang mentality” among the group.
Norris said: “It was 10 seconds or less, I didn’t have time to think. It was an impulse reaction.”
He said he did not have a weapon, but refused to discuss what the other members of the gang had done to protect his family.
Norris told the parole hearing: “I am not here to discuss other people, I am here to take responsibility for my part in what happened, my actions.”
He later added: “In an ideal world, I could tell them the whole truth of my part and others.
“I can’t give them everything they wish as it would pose a risk to me and my family.”
At his Old Bailey trial in 2011, he denied involvement in the killing, but since then has admitted he was at the scene.
The hearing was told that he was inspired to confess to a Catholic priest after watching a 2018 ITV documentary in which Neville Lawrence said he forgave his son’s killers.
Mr Lawrence’s mother, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, had said in a statement read to the hearing that she fears for her family’s safety and that it is her “firm view” that Norris should not walk free.
A statement by Mr Lawrence’s brother, Stuart, read: “This individual is fully aware of the truth, but has deliberately chosen to lie and remain silent.
“If you have any uncertainties, I strongly encourage you to keep this individual in his current situation until he is ready to reveal the truth.”
A prison offender manager told the hearing that Norris was inspired by a documentary featuring Neville Lawrence to finally admit that he was at the scene of Mr Lawrence’s killing.
Norris, who now maintains that he punched Mr Lawrence but did not stab him, said that the “forgiveness” Neville Lawrence showed had “stuck with” him.
The hearing was told that he has engaged in activities focusing on curbing racism and violence while in prison.
But the prison offender manager also said that he had called a female nurse “a horrible c***” and that she would not recommend release.
She said Norris should be moved to less restrictive prison conditions first.
In an opening statement, the chairwoman of the panel, Cassie Williams, quoted from the original sentencing remarks at Norris’s murder trial.
She repeated Mr Justice Treacy’s finding that Mr Lawrence’s murder was “a terrible and evil crime and was committed by a racist thuggish gang of which David Norris was a member”.
Evidence at Norris’s Old Bailey trial, which saw him convicted of murder alongside Gary Dobson, did not prove who wielded the knife, but the judge found that whoever had done so did so with the pair’s “knowledge and approval”.
She told the hearing that Mr Lawrence’s family “continue to be understandably devastated by his murder”.
The Parole Board panel will assess the risk that he poses, she told the hearing.
Ms Williams added: “It is important to highlight that it is not the purpose of an oral hearing to conduct a retrial in this case or to seek to punish David Norris over and above the sentence imposed by the court.
“The panel makes an assessment of risk.
“We are acutely aware that we cannot change what happened to Stephen Lawrence.”
