- guardian.co.uk, Sunday October 8 2000 17.02 BST
- The Observer, Sunday October 8 2000
A gang of five white men, all believed to be aged about 20, surrounded a black woman and subjected her to a prolonged assault in broad daylight.
The woman was in Eltham High Street, about half-a-mile from the place where Lawrence was killed, when she was attacked by the gang.
They forced the 38-year-old into a churchyard. One of the youths snatched her bag and hugged it to his chest. 'That's how you have to carry it,' he told her, 'because all the blacks are snatching bags.'
The gang shouted that they wanted to force non-whites out of Eltham and return it to white control. 'They were clearly emulating the role models laid before them by those who killed Stephen Lawrence,' the woman said.
The incident was the third in which white youths have been heard chanting: 'We are the Eltham racists.'
Lawrence was stabbed to death with a 10-inch blade while waiting at a bus stop in Eltham. But none of those believed to be responsible have ever been successfully prosecuted.
The case, which uncovered bungling and racism within the police force, led to an overhaul of police procedure.
The latest victim survived physically unscathed. As the youths pushed and screamed at the defenceless woman, shoppers walked past, customers at a local McDonald's watched and cars drove by without stopping.
The attack lasted 30 minutes before the assaulted woman fled to a nearby police station.
