'Police officer said Stephen Lawrence deserved to die'

A police recruit was secretly filmed saying the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence "deserved to die" and his murder was a "good memory" in a BBC documentary on racism in the police.

The recruit was recorded calling Stephen Lawrence's parents "fucking spongers" and says his white racist killers "should be given diplomatic immunity". The documentary also shows a recruit wearing a Ku Klux Klan mask and making racist threats against an Asian recruit on the same course, it was claimed.

The BBC last night made public some of the contents of the documentary, The Secret Policeman, to be broadcast on Tuesday. But it immediately faced criticism from the Home Secretary for "creating" a story.

Mark Daly, 28, secretly filmed the racist incidents at the Bruche National Police Training Centre, near Warrington, Cheshire. After graduating from the centre Mr Daly worked as a probationary constable for the Greater Manchester police force for five-and-a-half months. In August he was arrested after police received an anonymous tip-off alleging an undercover journalist had joined the force.

The BBC's decision to have Mr Daly infiltrate the force followed evidence to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry by Manchester's former chief constable David Wilmot in 1998 that his force was "institutionally racist".

David Blunkett questioned the BBC's "intent to create, not report" the story. He also suggested that the BBC had carried out a "covert stunt".

The BBC said its undercover operation was the only way to bring to light the problem of racism in the police.