Stephen Lawrence case: Mother ‘made up alibi’ for Lawrence accused son

Prosecutor Mark Ellison, QC, told Theresa Norris she had invented the story that her son David had been at home when Mr Lawrence was killed in April 1993.

“The first that we’ve heard of any suggestion that you can alibi your son for this murder is today,” he said. “I suggest to you that, as a result of that, you have made it up and it’s a recent thing that you have made it up.”

Mrs Norris said: “I haven’t made nothing up.”

Mr Ellison said: “There’s not been a breath uttered until today that you were in a position to give your son an alibi.”

She replied: “My son would have been at home.”

Mrs Norris told the Old Bailey jury that her son’s curfew was 9pm or 9:30pm. She said: “I had a routine. The routine was my children would be at home.”

When David Norris was interviewed by police in the wake of Mr Lawrence’s death, his mother did not tell them that she could provide an alibi.

She also failed to mention that clothing seized from the family home belonged to his brother Clifford, as the defence now claims.

Mrs Norris told the court: “I was advised by a legal team not to say nothing, so that’s what you do.”

Earlier, her son told the court he was “no angel” but repeatedly protested his innocence.

In dramatic clashes with Mr Ellison, Norris, 35, was asked several times what he was doing on the night Mr Lawrence died.

In apparent exasperation, he declared: “You are accusing me of murder. I am an innocent man.”

Norris insisted he had not been in the Eltham area of London on 22 April, 1993, when Mr Lawrence was stabbed to death by a racist gang.

David Norris and Gary Dobson, 36, deny murder and the trial continues on Monday.