Stephen Lawrence death suspect admits role in drugs plot

Stephen Lawrence death suspect admits role in drugs plot

A man who was suspected in the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence has admitted being a kingpin in a £4 million drugs plot.

Jamie Acourt, 42, from Eltham, south-east London, pleaded guilty at Kingston Crown Court on Thursday over the two-year conspiracy to sell cannabis resin.

His 43-year-old brother Neil Acourt has already been jailed for more than six years over the hashish scheme.

But Jamie had spent more than two years on the run until his arrest in May, during which he lived in Spain under the alias Simon Alfonzo.

Lawrence inquiry suspects 3
File pic of a younger Jamie Acourt arriving to give evidence at the public inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence (PA)

Both Acourts were arrested after the racist stabbing of the black 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence by a gang of white men in Eltham in 1993, but have always denied involvement.

Jurors were earlier told of his historic allegation and warned they should consider him solely on the trial’s evidence.

If the judge found they would be unable to do so, or they if they were serving or retired Metropolitan Police officers, they would have been excluded from the jury.

Jamie Acourt, appearing in court wearing a man bun and a beard, previously denied the conspiracy to supply a Class B drug between January 2014 and February 2016, but changed his plea following the end of the prosecution’s case opening.

Jamie Acourt court case
Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Jamie Acourt (Elizabeth Cook/PA)

Acourt fled the country after police raided a home he lived in with his partner and their two children in Bexley, south-east London, in February 2016.

He was arrested by armed officers as he left a gym in Barcelona on May 4 2018 and extradited back to Britain.

His brother had been sentenced to six years and three months’ imprisonment in February last year over the same conspiracy.

Jailing him, judge Recorder Paul Clements suggested one of Neil Acourt’s problems was that he had “heard too much negativity about you and begun to believe the negative publicity about you”.

The plot, he added, would “have kept the people of the Newcastle area in spliffs for many a long day”.

It involved dozens of 600-mile round trips from London to South Shields, driving drugs up and bringing back cash.

Stephen Lawrence murder
Stephen Lawrence was murdered by racists in 1993 (Family/PA)

They include the stepfather of Acourt’s partner, Lee Birks, 57, of Orpington, south-east London, and Neil Acourt’s 65-year-old father-in-law Jack Vose, of Bexley, south-east London.

In 2012, Gary Dobson and David Norris were convicted at the Old Bailey of murdering Mr Lawrence and jailed for life.

Both Acourts were arrested shortly after the murder but neither were convicted.

Jamie Acourt, currently of no fixed address, will be sentenced for the drugs charge on Friday.

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