Neville Lawrence ‘praying’ others will face justice

Dobson, 36 and Norris, 35, were convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey nearly 19 years after the murder.

Following the verdicts, the father of Stephen Lawrence told Channel 4 News it was “a release of emotion”.

“I would describe it as if you’re underwater and you come up for air. When the verdict was read out, I felt as if my heart was going to come through my mouth,” he said.

Mr and Mrs Lawrence fought a passionate 18 year-long fight to bring their son’s killers to justice, and Mr Lawrence said his life had completely changed.

More from Channel 4 News: Dobson and Norris found guilty of Stephen Lawrence murder

Despite his relief that both Dobson and Norris were found guilty, Mr Lawrence said he hoped they would give up the names of the other people involved in the racist gang.

“I’m praying that these people now realise that they’ve been found out and say to themselves, ‘yes I did this awful deed, but I wasn’t alone in that action that night and there are other people also guilty of what I’ve done’ and name them,” he said.

“I hope before the sentence is passed, they will talk and give the rest of these people that killed my son up….”

Speaking outside court on Tuesday, Stephen Lawrence’s mother Doreen said that the day was not a cause for celebration, adding: “How can I celebrate when I know that this day could have come 18 years ago if the police who were meant to find my son’s killers (had not) failed so miserably to do so?

However Neville Lawrence told Channel 4 News that he did not blame the police. “The people who were involved in the case before these people took it over, they tried their best to get a result – they were more or less doing the job that they were supposed to do.

“Unfortunately for them, the evidence that they tried to use was already out in the public domain,” he said.

“These people have done the case in the way it should’ve been done from 1993 and I have all praise for the way they conducted themselves.”

Mr Lawrence also said he believed the blame lies with the convicted men’s parents: “I compare Dobson and Norris’s upbringing to the way I brought my son up and I am not really blaming them. I blame the parents,” he said.

“If you instil hatred into your child, then that child has hatred. If they had tried to get it out of them, they wouldn’t have done what they did to Stephen.”