A recently revealed secret report from the Metropolitan Police suggests that Ray Adams, a senior officer involved in the Stephen Lawrence murder case, was corrupt. The report contradicts years of police denials regarding corrupt officers’ roles in the case. Adams, who had been cleared in a corruption probe during the late 1980s, was implicated in the secret report, which uncovered manipulation in the earlier investigation against him.
The corruption probe in question was based on false testimony from an informant linked to the family of one of Stephen’s killers. The Metropolitan Police did not respond to the BBC’s queries about the report’s conclusions regarding Adams, stating that they would review the material before deciding on any further action.
Imran Khan, solicitor for Stephen’s mother Baroness Lawrence, called the revelations about Adams “dramatic, disturbing, and shocking.” The 1998 public inquiry led by Sir William Macpherson did not hear about the connection between Adams and the informant, and in 2012, the Met stated that there was no indication of any relationship between the two.
Stephen Lawrence was brutally murdered in a racist attack in 1993, and the subsequent failure to bring his killers to justice sparked a national outcry. While two men were eventually convicted in 2012, other suspects have never faced convictions. The initial police investigation into the case has been a subject of corruption allegations for years, both during the 1998 public inquiry and in a review 16 years later.
Imran Khan is urging the Met to apologize for not informing Baroness Lawrence and her family about what they knew and to admit misleading the Macpherson inquiry. Ray Adams, now 81, has consistently denied corruption allegations, pointing to the lack of disciplinary or criminal proceedings against him. The secret report, however, concludes that he was corrupt and outlines a convoluted tale involving a corrupt antiques dealer, covert police operations, and one of Britain’s most notorious criminals.
