Old Bailey hears extracts from interviews conducted by police with man accused of teenager's murder
A man accused of murdering Stephen Lawrence told police he had been at home at the time of the racially motivated stabbing of the African-Caribbean teenager, a jury heard on Monday.
Gary Dobson, in an interview with detectives in 1993, claimed to have been indoors all evening, only leaving for a short while to collect reggae singer Bob Marley's Legend CD from a friend's house.
Dobson also denied knowing David Norris, who is also accused of the murder. The trial has previously heard that police had surveillance pictures of the two together, taken a fortnight before Dobson made his denial in May 1993.
The Old Bailey jury was yesterdayread extracts of his interview, during which Dobson told police: "I ain't no murderer and I ain't no racist."
Lawrence, 18, was stabbed to death by a racist gang on 22 April 1993 in Eltham, south-east London.
Detectives had asked Dobson to list his friends. He said they included Neil and Jamies Acourt and he went to their house at 11.45pm on the night Lawrence was killed. He had earlier not mentioned this visit to a police officer who questioned Dobson as part of house-to-house inquiries.
During the interview, Dobson was asked by police about a friend of his called "Dave", and claimed it was a youth called "David Williams".
When a detective said Dobson knew Norris, he replied: "I don't know who you mean. I've heard the name, I've heard the name but I don't know who you mean."
Dobson later added: "I know of a David Norris, I've heard his name mentioned just in conversation or whatever ... I've not actually met him."
Dobson's home was 200 yards from where Lawrence was stabbed. When asked during the interview why he did not go to look at the scene after he claimed to have been told there had been a murder, Dobson said: "No, it was horrible. What do I want to go to a murder scene for? It's none of my business."
The officer said: "That's why you didn't want to go back, because you were there when it happened."
Dobson replied: "No I wasn't, it's not any of my business what went on there."
He also said he was not wearing a grey and yellow jacket upon which prosecutors say a microscopic trace of Lawrence's blood was found.
"I don't like it. I used to get taken the mick out of because it says Supertramp on the back,"Dobson told police.
The case continues.