A RARE private prosecution for murder collapsed yesterday after the judge told the dead man's family that the evidence of an important witness was unsafe to be put before the jury.

Family and friends of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, who have fought for three years to find the people responsible for his death, immediately criticised Mr Justice Curtis's ruling. Stephen's father, Neville Lawrence, said: "I believe in fairness and I don't think what has happened today is fair."

The jury at the Old Bailey was formally ordered to return not-guilty verdicts against three unemployed white men: Neil Acourt, 20, Luke Knight, 19, and Gary Dobson, 20, all from southeast London. They had denied being at the scene when Stephen was stabbed to death near a bus stop in Eltham on April 22, 1993.

The victim's family and friends claimed the ruling showed that black people could not get justice in Britain. They were critical of the original police investigation, claiming that local information should have been acted on sooner. Mr Lawrence, a builder, and his wife took out a private prosecution after the Crown Prosecution Service decided that there was insufficient evidence.

Mr Justice Curtis ruled late on Wednesday that it was unsafe for the evidence of Dwayne Brooks, Stephen's best friend who witnessed the attack, to go before the jury. Mr Brooks had only glimpsed one of the attackers and could not recollect any of their faces.

The collapse of the case meant that the jury never saw a video, produced by police in a covert surveillance operation, which showed the defendants making abusive racial comments and playing with knives. After considering the position overnight, the family's barrister, Michael Mansfield, QC, announced yesterday that he would not be pursuing the case.

Mr Brooks emerged during the case as a sad figure who still lives with the mental scars of his friend's death. He has been diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder but has refused offers of treatment. He admitted being driven by thoughts of revenge from the moment Stephen collapsed in front of him. He telephoned for an ambulance rather than the police because he did not trust them.

Before he went to one identity parade the names of some of the accused had emerged through local rumour and he had

No Woman No Cry
1998
Chris Ofili

worked out that he was expected to pick Neil Acourt. At a subsequent parade he picked Luke Knight and later admitted to a police officer that friends had told him to look for ``the scruffiest one" because Mr Knight would have spent some time in the police cells.

He went on to change his story four times about who he believed had wielded the knife that killed Stephen. Mr Justice Curtis ruled that Mr Brooks, for whatever reason, ``simply doesn't know if he is on his head or his heels" and that his evidence could lead to the danger of conviction on misidentification. ``To do so would amount to injustice, and adding one injustice to another does not cure the injustice done to the Lawrence family."

Imran Khan, the Lawrence family solicitor, said later: ``We are extremely disappointed with the judge's ruling and would have hoped the identification evidence could be put before the jury something that happens in nearly every other case. It must be remembered that we would never have been in this position if the first police inquiry into the murder had gathered sufficient evidence."

Scotland Yard defended its record in the case last night and vowed to continue the search for the killers. Ian Johnston, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner, said: ``We will never give up on this inquiry. We will never close this case and we will go on looking forever.

``We will meet with the family in a few weeks when the dust has settled."