Doreen Lawrence tells of reaction to guilty verdict

Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, has described how she had to hold herself back from screaming when her son's killers were found guilty.

Stephen was stabbed to death in 1993 by a racist gang in Eltham, south London, at the age of 18. Gary Dobson and David Norris were finally brought to justice for his killing this year.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, broadcast today, Mrs Lawrence says: "During the trial I couldn't read the jury, I couldn't tell. And so my heart was in my mouth when we went back downstairs, and when they said 'guilty' I suppose I had to hold myself in from screaming out or anything because... I never thought I'd hear those words – that someone's been found guilty of Stephen's death."

She says the news has still yet to sink in: "The reality hasn't really hit me because I think for so long you've waited for that moment."

Since her son's death Mrs Lawrence has campaigned for victims of racist crime and the reform of the police service. But she says that she would swap her OBE "just to have my son back".