The first time Dr John Sentamu visited Jamaica, it was to accompany Neville Lawrence, who was visiting the grave of his son Stephen, thousands of miles away from the racist gang that murdered him and the incompetent police who failed to catch them
An interview with the Archbishop is one of two articles about his views in today’s Daily Telegraph:
Back in 1999, he was a junior bishop in east London and had just served on the official inquiry into the killing and the investigation. He returned to the Caribbean island this week at the invitation of its government and the Anglican church, now the second most senior cleric in the Church of England, just weeks after two of the teenager’s killers were finally jailed.
But, speaking during a brief break on his nine-day visit, Dr Sentamu said: “The fact that two on joint enterprise have been convicted when the inquiry said there was a possibility of five or six, still there’s some four in my book that haven’t really faced questioning.
“At least we have recommended that the double jeopardy rule doesn’t apply if there is fresh evidence. The Court of Appeal decided there was in the case of Dobson and I think the same would be true of the others, should fresh evidence come. I don’t think the whole thing has been wound up.”
Although he believes many organisations have made progress over the past decade in tackling the “institutional racism” identified by the inquiry, some have avoided it. “Those that did it, there is some kind of change. Football never did it, so I’m not surprised [by allegations of racism on the pitch].