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July 27, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 8:25pm

Daly: ‘We’ve done our best on Lawrence, now it’s up to the IPCC’

By Press Gazette

BBC reporter Mark Daly said it was now up to the Independent Police Complaints Commission to look at alleged corruption he has unearthed in the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry.

In The Boys Who Killed Stephen Lawrence, broadcast on Wednesday, the reporter behind the BBC's Baftawinning The Secret Policeman, spent the last year investigating one of Britain's most famous unsolved murders.

Daly told Press Gazette: "We've done what we can, we've done our best and worked hard on this investigation. The case was effectively closed when we took it up and now it has been reopened again to an extent. It is now up to the IPCC to investigate the corruption and maybe even up to the police to investigate on new lines of enquiry."

Daly became familiar with the case and met Stephen's mother, Doreen, while he was working on The Secret Policeman.

He said: "I was just impressed with the quiet dignity with which she seemed to handle these things, so when the BBC asked me if I fancied having a look at the Lawrence case, I jumped at it."

The reporter spent 12 hours going over radio footage from an interview on Talk Radio — now called TalkSport — during which suspect David Norris gave out information that apparently contradicted what his witnesses had said about his movements on the night of Lawrence's murder.

Daly said: "I just picked up on it and thought: Fuck, hang on a minute. He said that, but I know his alibi witness said they were with him."

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The documentary claims that Detective Sergeant John Davidson, who was involved in the case, was in the pay of Norris's father — a known criminal.

Daly said: "Apart from the lawyers, we had the editorial policy department who were overseeing the investigation to make sure that it was conducted within BBC editorial guidelines.

"You know what the BBC is like, especially post-Hutton. Everything is scrutinised and quite rightly so. It makes you feel protected when you have a team of lawyers and an editorial policy team keeping an eye on everything."

Daly has come in for criticism from the Metropolitan Police, who have accused him of failing to cooperate by giving them access to the material.

The reporter denied the accusation, saying that police were invited to see the film before it went out, which he said was done in a spirit of cooperation.

A helpline number was also added at the end of the film, which members of the public could call if they had any more information about the case.

Daly said: "I'd like to think that we cooperated with the police as much as we could, and we hope to continue to cooperate with them in any further enquiries."

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

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