LONDON - The British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, yesterday backed calls for the killers of black teenager Stephen Lawrence to be brought to justice. Mr Major said in the Commons there was "no question of statutory contempt" as a result of a recent Daily Mail article accusing five named white men of the murder, which happened at a bus stop in south London four years ago. He told MPs: "I hope even at this stage that it will be possible to mount a successful prosecution. If evidence is forthcoming, it will be examined. There is no lack of will to prosecute."
The five men refused to testify at an inquest which last week described the attack as "a completely unprovoked racist attack". All five have been accused of the killing in the courts - two in a criminal case and the entire five in a civil case brought by the Lawrence family. However, they have either been acquitted or had the cases against them abandoned.