Two suspects in the Stephen Lawrence murder case have been sent to jail for racially abusing a policeman.
David Norris and Neil Acourt were both given 18-month jail terms, an official at Woolwich Crown Court in London told Reuters today. The maximum sentence they faced was two years.
The pair had been found guilty in July of driving a car within two feet of an off-duty black detective, hurling a drinks carton at him and using racially abusive language.
Norris (25), a passenger in the car driven by Acourt (27) shouted "nigger" at Det Constable Gareth Reid he walked home in the southeast London suburb of Eltham in May.
During the trial, Norris said he threw the drinks carton because the detective had given him a "certain look".
He said he had suffered "nine years of persecution" since the Lawrence murder in 1993 and the stress of bringing up four children led him to lose his temper in a "moment of madness".
Lawrence (18) was stabbed to death at an Eltham bus stop in April 1993 in a case which shocked the country and dominated political and media debate.
Norris, from Kent, southeast England, had initially been charged with the Lawrence murder but the charges were dropped. Acourt, from Greenwich, southeast London, and three others were cleared of murder at a 1996 Old Bailey trial.