Doubts over Lawrence case fibres

One of the men accused of murdering Stephen Lawrence may have picked up traces of forensic evidence when visiting one of the attackers, a court heard.

Forensic scientist Roy Green told a jury at the Old Bailey that one of the scenarios he considered during his research was that David Norris had visited one of the killers and picked up fibres on his clothes.

Experts found six green fibres matching Mr Lawrence’s trousers and one matching his T-shirt linked to a sweatshirt seized from Norris’s house.

Yesterday, Stephen Batten QC, for Norris, asked Mr Green: “What you postulated to yourself is that he might know one of the real assailants, for example, and have gone round to their address?”

Mr Green said: “That was one of the scenarios that I considered, yes.”

On Monday, the fibres expert told the court that he had also looked at the possibility that the sweater was washed after the attack. But Mr Batten told him: “You haven’t a clue whether it was washed or not.”

Norris, 35, and Gary Dobson, 36, deny taking part in the gang attack in which Mr Lawrence was killed in Eltham, London, in 1993. The trial was adjourned until today.