Stephen Lawrence jury shown video of racist rants

Footage of obscene racist rants by two men accused of murdering Stephen Lawrence was shown to a jury today.

Extracts of the surveillance video shot at Gary Dobson's flat in Eltham, south east London in 1994 were seen by a jury at the Old Bailey.

In one of the clips co-defendant David Norris said: "If I was going to kill myself do you know what I would do? I would go and kill every black c***, every Paki, every copper, every mug that I know I'm telling you."

Later he went on: "I would go down Catford and places like that I am telling you now, with two sub machine guns, and I am telling you I would take one of them, skin the black c*** alive mate, torture him, set him alight...I would blow their two arms and legs off and say "go on, you can swim home now". They would be bobbing around like that."

Norris also used racist abuse when talking about a fight he was having with a "grandad" when a black man intervened.

He said: "This n***** come along and I just kneed the c*** right in the bollocks. He was a f****** grown man, he was about 40 years old and I was knocking the grandad. A big n***** come along and said "leave the f****** kid alone, you silly c***". I started going on and called him a black c*** and all that, saying he was a f****** c**n.

"He was going 'leave it out, mate'. So I went smack, punched the n***** like that and he was going 'f***, like what's going on?'."

Dobson was seen in the clips repeatedly using the word n*****, and recalling a time when he threatened a black colleague with a knife.

A scuffle broke out between the pair when Dobson stole his baseball cap, and he later threatened the colleague with a Stanley knife.

He said: "He is a black c*** but he ain't like a n*****, a rude boy or nothing. He talks like a normal f****** white geezer."

Dobson went on: "I said, 'tap me once more, you silly c***, I'm going to f****** slice this down you seven times."

He was also seen wandering around the flat with a large knife, and telling a friend that a "Paki" had won the lottery jackpot.

Dobson, 36, and Norris, 35, deny taking part in the gang attack in which Mr Lawrence was killed in Eltham, south east London, in 1993.

Before the video was shown, Mr Justice Treacy warned the jury: "You may well find it shocking. If you do, you must remember that emotion has no part to play in your decision in this trial."

The black and white sequences were shot over a number of days.

The hidden camera appeared to be somewhere below the television set and conversations were heard with television programmes such as Coronation Street, News at Ten and Gladiators in the background.

It focused on the living room with views into the kitchen through an open door.

Sometimes the view would be partially obscured by a vacuum cleaner or wicker basket or stool.

The court was shown another police surveillance clip of Dobson complaining about a television advert.

He said: "Look, all the n****** having a good time in the sun. All the white people getting gloomy at a bus stop. All the n****** are having a good time at a bar drinking.

"A white fat bouncer, ugly c***, nice-looking black geezer in a club having a good time and the white geezer all boring. That's racist, that advert."

Later he added: "All the n****** having a right good time at a party. Yeah, all in the slums, shooting each other."

Jurors were then read an interview with Dobson in which he was told he had been arrested in connection with the private prosecution.

In it, Dobson insists he is not a racist saying: "I have got nothing against black skin itself."

Asked if his friends were racist, he replied: "They have the same point of view as me."

But after being shown the covert footage, he said: "I have no comment I wish to make about the video. I wish to consult further with my solicitor."

In police interviews in 1995, Dobson also told officers: "Stabbing innocent people is not something that we get off on, it's not something that we enjoy doing. We ain't animals."