Stephen Lawrence case: Alibi from mother for accused

ONE of the men accused of murdering Stephen Lawrence was at home making toast at the time of the killing, his mother told a jury yesterday.

Pauline Dobson said she had seen her son Gary in the kitchen of the family home in Eltham, south-east London, around 10:30pm on 22 April, 1993.

She said: “At half past ten I went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea… Gary came down to make toast at 10:30pm, 20 to 11.”

Mrs Dobson said her son was at home all evening on the night of the murder, playing loud music and computer games in his bedroom.

In cross examination, prosecutor Mark Ellison QC said that in 1996 Mrs Dobson told police she had seen her son ten minutes later than that. He said: “This ten minutes could be an extremely important ten minutes between half past ten and 20 to 11, because the people who attacked Stephen Lawrence could have been back in their homes by then … You saw Gary wearing not very much in the kitchen at 20 to 11 or a quarter to 11.”

She replied: “Yeah.”

“That I suggest was what you thought in 1996. Is there any reason why it’s become half past ten when you come to give evidence?” Mr Ellison asked.

“I’m sorry, give or take ten minutes, about then,” she said.

Timothy Roberts, for Dobson, asked: “From the time that your friends arrived to the time that the television programme finished around about 11 o’clock would you tell the jury please where your son Gary was?”

Mrs Dobson said: “My son was in the house the whole time.”

Earlier, Dobson, 36, said he did not hold racist views at the time of the murder, despite being seen making racist comments in a police surveillance tape shot the following year.

Dobson and David Norris, 35, deny murder.