The mother of David Norris, a suspect in the racist killing of Stephen Lawrence, was accused of making up an alibi for her son in court on Thursday by claiming for the first time in 18 years that he was at home on the night of the murder.
On the final day of evidence in the murder trial of Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, the jury watched as counsel for the Crown clashed with Teresa Norris repeatedly over her evidence.
Norris himself had earlier stood in the witness box to deny having any part in the racist killing of 18-year-old Lawrence on 22 April 1993. "I am not an angel, but I am also not a murderer," he said.
Norris told the court he could not remember where he was on the night of the murder, but he was not in Well Hall Road, Eltham where Lawrence was set upon by a gang of five white youths and fatally stabbed as he waited for a bus with his friend Duwayne Brooks.
Dobson and Norris were 17 and 16 respectively at the time of the murder. They were charged after new forensic evidence emerged involving blood, fibres and hair which prosecutors say put them at the scene of the killing. Both men deny murder.
Giving evidence after her son, Mrs Norris told the Old Bailey jury that Norris had been at home on the night of the murder, but the jury heard it was the first time since her son was arrested as a suspect in May 1993 that this suggestion had been made.
During a tense exchange in cross examination, Mark Ellison, QC, prosecuting, repeatedly asked her when she had first said she could provide her son with an alibi. "When did you first make known to the representatives of your son that you were able to say that he must have been at home on the night of this murder?" Ellison asked.
"I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?" she replied.
"When did you first indicate to those who represent your son that you can say for sure that he must have been at home after 9pm on the night of this murder?"
Mrs Norris replied: "I can't remember. I have a routine. The routine is my children would be at home."
"When did you first make that fact known?" said Ellison. "I can't remember," she said again. "I can't remember; it's so long ago."
"As your son was arrested in 1993, a potentially significant fact that you could vouch for his whereabouts that night that you could give him an alibi – wouldn't it have been pretty soon after his arrest for a murder?" said Ellison.
"My son was at home. He got wrongly accused two weeks after it happened," she said.
"I have to suggest this is a recent invention," said Ellison. "You have not purported to give your son an alibi until today ... The first that has been known of any suggestion that you can alibi your son for this murder is today. And I am suggesting to you that you have made it up," said Ellison.
"I haven't made nothing up," she said.
"You were at the police station in 1993 with your son as his appropriate adult, if you could give him an alibi, why didn't you say so?"
Mrs Norris replied that her legal team had told her to make no comment.
David Norris, who suffers from hearing difficulties, told the court: "I am an innocent man." But he was pressed by the prosecution in cross examination about discrepancies between his evidence in court and what he said in a 1999 TV interviewwith the journalist Martin Bashir.
Norris had said then that there was a 50:50 chance he had been in Eltham that night staying with his girlfriend Cheryl.
Asked about this, Norris said he could remember nothing about that and he denied having a girlfriend called Cheryl or knowing anyone of that name.
Pressing him further, Ellison said: "Is it possible you were in the Eltham area?" Norris replied again: "No." "How do you know?" said Ellison. "Because I am innocent," said Norris.
He was played footage of the police surveillance tape in which he makes threats against black people, and calls them "niggers".
Ellison suggested the footage revealed the David Norris of 1994. "I am not suggesting for one minute I was any sort of angel, I wasn't. But that doesn't make me capable of murder," said Norris.
Ellison said: "It did mean that you would be capable that if you had been out with your mates, the same mates as are on the tape, and came across two black youths on the edge of the estate, you were likely to address them as nigger, which is what happened, and your hatred of black people would be quite enough for you to attack them and one or your number would happen to be packing a knife."
Norris replied: "Not at all, sir, I had no part in it whatsoever."
The case continues.
Join live quran teaching staff
Now days we as Muslims have to spread the voice to learn quran and so we could gain the true knowledge and the quran teaching that is give to us by our beloved prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and do quran reading. Do we as Muslim ask our self that why we are at the peak of destruction? The answer will be simple that we have left our roots the holy quran we should guide promote Islam from in our homes first and let learn our kids quran and encourage them in doing quran memorization this should be our first goal for it we can do different stuff like let then participate in different online quran recitation competition to let them listen quran from different online quran reciters and along with it we elders should learn quran also and improve our knowledge of quran and Islam and learn holy quran tafseer because to understand and learn quran Arabic and for this now a days there are many online quran tutor available who teach tajweed quran and its translation and tafseer so let us join our hands to be the voice of Islam and let improve the image of it as well and full fill our deputy
No comments:
Post a Comment