London - The five "prime suspects" ordered before the Stephen Lawrence inquiry were told by the High Court yesterday that they must appear and answer questions - but two judges ruled they cannot be asked whether they are guilty or innocent of the murder of the teenager.
Lord Justice Simon Brown, sitting with Mr Justice Hooper, said: "Whilst the inquiry involves in a real sense a trial of the police who investigated this crime, it is in no sense a trial of these applicants and it must not be allowed to become one."
Later Neville and Doreen Lawrence, parents of the murdered black teenager, welcomed the fact that the suspects would attend the inquiry. "For the first time I can hear from their own lips what went on that night," Mrs Lawrence said.
The five men have all at various times been charged with the murder of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence at a south London bus stop in 1993. Three were acquitted at the Old Bailey and the charges against the other two never came to trial. The judges' ruling yesterday follows the men's challenge of the inquiry chairman's decision that they must appear at the inquiry.