The Orator.Press Education Page: A ‘Windrush75 & Black History Month’ Special. Richie Sampson, The Charming & Very Disciplined Former South East London School Teacher Turned Soul Band Lead Singer Includes The Late Stephen Lawrence Amongst His Former Students And Talks Highly of Both Him And His Parents. And Shares Some of His Own Lifestory. October 2023

Teaching At Stephen Lawrence’s School & Meeting His Parents

30 Years On: The Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation A Legacy For Change stephenlawrenceday.org

TO.P: So What Made You Enter The World of Entertainment, With This Project As You Call It?

RS: “Because In My Life, I Think We Should Do Many Things Before We Go. Being A School Teacher Was Rewarding And There’s Lots & Lots of Kids I’ve Taught In South East London.“

“I Taught Stephen Lawrence. I Was At The John Roan School When Stephen Lawrence Was Taken From Us. Where He Fell In Eltham I Was There. We Took The Kids From School And We Walked Down There To Protest That This Was Injustice. And I’m So Glad That We Were Able To Fight That Particular Injustice And Some of The People Who Were Down There Were Brought To Justice.” [Gary Dobson & David Norris Were Later Convicted of Murder. And The National Front Headquarters (In Nearby Welling)] Were Closed Down As A Result].

“Even Now When I’m Passing Through London On Tour And I Pass Through There When Going To Some of The Shows, I Pass That Bus Stop In Eltham And I See How Far His Friend Had To Run To Get To The Police Station At The Top of The Road [Shooters Hill Police Station]. And When He Got Up There He Tried To Tell Them But They Did Not Treat Him As The Victim [But Instead As A Suspect] It Upsets Me. But Things Have Changed As A Result In Eltham, Lewisham, Catford  And Brockley As A Result of That.  And People Are Now Determined That It Should Never Happen Again.”

[Two of The Notorious Five Suspects Involved In Stephen’s Murder Were Eventually Convicted On The Basis of Fresh Scientific Evidence. The Local Extreme-Right National Front Head Office In Nearby Welling Was Shut Down. And The Notorious Ferrier Estate, Known For A Lot of Skinhead Activity, Was Eventually Knocked Down And Different Families Were Re-Housed].

Stephen’s Parents Doreen & Neville Lawrence

The Respect of The Nation.

Baroness & Dr Lawrence Have Fought Relentlessly To Secure Justice For Their Son Stephen. They’ve Achieved Alot:

An Appointment To The House of Lords, Change In The Law On Double Jeopardy,

A Judicial Declaration That The Metropolitan Police Are “Institutionally Racist”

The Conviction of Two of The Five Murderers.

Richie Explains That He Met Stephen’s Parents Neville And Doreen Lawrence At Parents Evening When He Was A Teacher At Joan Roan School [Where Stephen Attended 6th Form As Part of Doing A Joint Course With Blackheath & Blue Coats School Across The Road] And “They Were Both So Humble.”

RS: “As A Result of Stephen’s Murder They Had To Step Up And Fight For Justice. And Now Doreen Lawrence Is “Probably One of The Most Powerful People In The Country Right Now,  In The House of Lords And Changing Legislation”.

“I’m So Glad We Were Able To Win Some of Those Fights And Change Things In This Country Where Racism And Abuse Should Be Challenged, And We Have A Voice. It’s Not Complete But Back Then When I Went To School We Didn’t Have Much of A Voice.”

Students & Teachers Made Their Voices Heard & Showed Their Support

In Memory of Their Late School Alumni Stephen Lawrence

By Way of A School March In Peaceful Protest At His Murder

Community Leader Ros Howells Says In Terms of Racism The World Had Changed But Not Sure The Police Had. Schools In The Local Area Marched To The Place In Eltham, South London, Where He Was Murdered By Racists. The Schools Marched There As An Expression of Sympathy,Support & Respect For Him & His Family

RS: “That Day When The Kids Came In And Said “Sir Have You Heard What Happened About Stephen Last Night?” [After That] They Sat In Silence For An Hour. No One Spoke. None of Them Spoke. They Didn’t Say A Word. They Couldn’t Explain What Had Happened To Their Best Friend.”

“I’ll Always Remember That For The Rest of My life.”

“I Didn’t Teach Them A Thing That Day. I Wasn’t Teaching Them Science. I Wasn’t Teaching Them Physics.”

“Fifteen Minutes Before The End of The Lesson I Said To Them ‘Pack Up’.  I Knew The Headmaster Wouldn’t Have Agreed With It But I Didn’t Care. Today Was Their Day To Try And Process What Had Happened To Their Fellow School Mate. I Sent Them Home Early.”

“It Was A Big Thing In Eltham And A Big Thing In The Community. The Headteacher [Later] Decided We Were Going To March The Whole School Down To Bus Stop In Eltham. All The Other Schools In The Area Came Down On That Day Too. The Neighbours Came Out. People On The Street. And Everybody On That Day Stood In Silence. There Were Thousands of Kids And There Wasn’t One Incident. Everybody Marched. And Were So Well Behaved. Because They Understood The Importance of That Particular Day.”

“Normally Naughty Kids Do What Naughty Kids Do. But On That Day, None of Them!”

“You Could Feel There Was Going To Be Change And There Was. Thank God.”

“It Was A Learning Curve For Them, So When They Got Down To Eltham, On That Street [Well Hall Road] Were Stephen Was Killed, Was Murdered, It Was Frightening For Them Because They Were Only 14. They’re 13, 14 Year Old Children Who Don’t Understand What Murder Means, And They Were So Shocked And Moved.

“But In One Way It Was A Glorious Day. It Was Not Something You Could Teach. It Was Something They Had To Witness For Themselves. And It’s Something None of Us Will Ever Forget In Honour of Stephen.”

And We Have A Voice.

It’s Not Complete,

But Back Then When I Went To School We Didn’t Have Much of A Voice.

Richie Sampson, Former Science Teacher & Achievement Coordinator

The Law of Double Jeopardy, DCI Matt Flynn & DCI Clive Driscoll

The 1999 Macpherson Report Looked Into The State of The Metropolitan Police, Following Stephen’s Racist Murder, Aged 19, And Complaints About The Sub-Standard Investigation That Followed It. One of Its Many Recommendedations Was Scrapping The So Called Double Jeopardy Rule Which Dictated That Once Acquitted A Defendant Could Not Be Subjected To A Murder Trial For The Same Killing Again. The Recommendation Was A Response To The Fact That Numerous Local People Knew Who The Killers of Stephen Were But Police Racism Hampered The Investigation And They Subsequenty Initially All Walked Free.

It Only Comes Into Effect If Police & Prosecutors Can Find New And Compelling Evidence Against The Original Suspect.

In 2012, Thanks To A Re-Investigation And Extraordinary Detective Work By DCI Clive Driscoll And Fresh-Thinking Forensic Analysis On Newly Discovered Blood Spots (Which Had Been There All Along) Two of The Five Suspects Were Re-Tried And Convicted. (It Was Later Confirmed That Six Suspects Should Have Really Been Apprehended Years Ago During The Initial Investigation. But That Was Only Officially Revealed After The Death of The One That Got Away).

The First Double Jeopardy Re-Trial Conviction Occured Three Years Earlier In 2009 When Ex-Footballer Mario Ceclaire Initially Got Away With Murdering His Ex-Girlfriend (Cassandra McDermott, Also Aged Just 19) After A Row And Covering Her Dead Body With A DuvetAnd Leaving It On The Floor, To Be Discovered By Her Sisters, Who Became Worried For Her. But He Was Subsequently Apprehended And Convicted After Confessing His Crime To His New Girlfriend (Kaya Hoyte) Whom He Later Also Attacked. She Survived And Was Able To Give Evidence Against Him, Including Reporting His Prior Confesson.

In That Case The First Victim’s Family And The Survivor Were Supported By DCI Matt Flynn of Croydon Police. And DCI Nick Scola. Her Mother Jennifer McDermott Later Set Up The cassandracentre.org.uk Above LLoyds Bank Norbury To Help Others Avoid or Escape Domestic Abuse.

It Was The Mcpherson Report That Also First Delivered The Phrase “Institutionally Racist”. Today, Decades Later, The MET Still Refuses To Accept It Is “Institutionally Racist”. And As A Result It Continues To Make Repeated Failures In Terms of Community Relations And Respectable Policing, As It Hasn’t  Learnt Sufficiently From Its Mistakes. Consequently It Has Since Also Been Declared Institutionally Corrupt, Institutionally Misogynistic, And Institutionally Homophobic From Subsequent Reports. And It Is In Special Measures.

We Explain That It was Our Special Honour And Privilege To Interview The Now Retired Detective Chief Inspector, Clive Driscoll, Who Was Central To Securing The Conviction of Two of The Racist Murderers Responsible For Stephen’s Murder. Alongside The Forensic Team.

Richie Was Particularly Pleased To Know That Doreen & Clive Have Become Firm Friends & Allies And Infact Driscoll Now Sits On The Stephen Lawrence Day Board of Trustees @sldfdn. Indeed The World Would Be A Much Better Place If More Police Officers Were Like Him And Followed His Example And Had His Courage.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8