The Home Secretary has urged the Met to intensify efforts to investigate claims that corrupt officers protected the killers of Stephen Lawrence.
As pressure grew for a public inquiry, Theresa May is understood to have told Stephen’s family that she shares their concern about claims that a Scotland Yard report detailing a senior officer’s alleged links with organised crime was withheld from Macpherson’s inquiry into Stephen’s death.
Stephen’s mother Doreen responded to the claims — which Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe is investigating — by calling for a second public inquiry to be conducted into the circumstances surrounding her 18-year-old son’s racist murder in Eltham in 1993.
Sources say Mrs May is deeply perturbed by the alleged cover-up and is determined to ensure that Scotland Yard establishes the truth of what happened.
She believes that the allegations are of the “utmost importance” and that they must be investigated properly to prevent confidence in the Met from being undermined.
One option under consideration is to accept Mrs Lawrence’s call for another public inquiry, although it is understood that other swifter and cheaper ways of discovering what happened will be pursued first.
The controversy centres on claims that a secret Scotland Yard report raising doubts about the integrity of the former Met commander Ray Adams was not passed to the Macpherson inquiry, which published its landmark findings in 1999.
The report, containing details of an investigation by the Met’s anti-corruption unit, listed concerns about the conduct of Mr Adams when he was head of the Met’s criminal intelligence unit. It was involved in gathering information about major criminals. The investigation into Mr Adams, who strongly denied any wrongdoing, was prompted by allegations that he had improper relationships with some informants and had taken bribes.
There were also claims that Mr Adams had links to convicted killer Kenneth Noye, whose associates included the father of David Norris, one of the key Lawrence suspects who was convicted of murdering Stephen this year. No criminal or misconduct charges have been brought against Mr Adams.
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Despite the potential importance of the claims, the report was not passed to Sir William Macpherson, although Mr Adams was questioned about corruption. The Met is now trying to locate all its files relating to corruption inquiries which might have had relevance to the Lawrence inquiry but has yet to begin a proper assessment of the evidence.
Mrs Lawrence has said that a new public inquiry is needed, examining both police corruption and why information was withheld from her family, adding: “I cannot see how Theresa May can now refuse.”
The Macpherson inquiry was asked to look at claims of corruption in the original murder inquiry but concluded there was no evidence to support the allegations. It did, however, make 70 recommendations, many aimed at “institutionalised racism” in the Met.
