'The Met won’t forget Stephen Lawrence': Police chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe vows to catch killers on anniversary of murder

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe promised Doreen Lawrence that his force would catch the racist killers who murdered her teenage son Stephen, while meeting her at a memorial service today.

In a statement Sir Bernard said police officers had let the family down by “not catching his murderers” and said that after two belated convictions last year he wanted to “catch the other people involved”. He said: “The Met won’t forget Stephen Lawrence.”

The service at St Martin-in-the-Field on Trafalgar Square, on the 20-year anniversary of the 18-year-old’s death in Eltham, south east London, was also attended by Prime Minister David Cameron and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

Mrs Lawrence told the congregation: “The pain of losing someone never goes away, you just learn to live with it at cost. Over the years as a family we have mourned in our separate ways... My pain is raw, and that of my children.”