Arrested within days of the murder, they are charged with the killing almost two decades later because of a cold case review in 2007 in which a fresh approach by forensic scientists revealed DNA findings, which the prosecution insists prove the pair were among the violent gang. The defence reject them as a product of cross-contamination over the years.
The prosecution could not prove whether one or either of the men wielded the knife, Ellison said yesterday, but that they were part of a group of "like-minded" young white men who acted together, in a "totally unprovoked" attack. He added: "The only discernible reason was the colour of his skin."
It was a Thursday, around 10.35pm, on April 22, 1993, that Stephen Lawrence and his friend Duwayne Brooks, 18, were waiting for a bus home from Eltham in South London. Five white youths raced towards them, one yelling "what, what nigger".
Stephen was not quick enough to run as his friend fled. One witness described how, "He was swallowed up by the weight of numbers and forced to the ground," said Ellison.
The first knife struck him around the right collar bone, severing an artery, as he collapsed the second blow hit him in the right shoulder, slicing through another artery. He got to his feet and ran, but he made it just 200m.
"He collapsed on to the pavement, opposite the junction with Downman Rd, never to get up again," said the barrister.
When Norris was arrested in May 1993, police seized a grey-yellow bomber jacket from his bedroom and a cardigan from his parents' bedroom. Scientific evidence from those items lies at the heart of the new case, the court heard.
The original police investigation did not lead to any prosecutions. Three years later, the Lawrence family brought a private prosecution but that was stopped "because the evidence was found to be wholly unreliable", Ellison said.
An inquest was followed by an independent public inquiry which reported back in 1999 and criticised the police investigation.
The new scientific evidence followed a cold case review in 2007 and led to the arrests of Norris and Dobson in September last year.
Fourteen years had elapsed when forensic scientists were asked to look at the evidence previously tested by the Home Office Forensic Science Service.
Despite the fact no traces of blood had been found on Dobson's grey bomber jacket, they found a tiny spot of blood - 0.5mm by 0.25mm - in the collar which matched the teenager's profile by a one-in-a-billion chance.
On the jacket and within the exhibit bag that it had been held in they went on to find 16 cloth fibres that matched his polo shirt, jacket and cardigan. Blood fragments also matched Lawrence's profile.
On Dobson's cardigan, three blue green fibres were found that appeared to match Lawrence's jacket. Short pieces of hair found on a pair of jeans seized from the home of Norris were sent to the United States for specialist DNA testing and were found to be similar to those found on Lawrence's clothing, the court heard.
Timothy Roberts, QC, for Dobson, said the evidence had been accidentally transferred to his client's clothes during handling by police and scientists.
- Independent
