Stephen Lawrence trial: David Norris says he is innocent

Murder suspect David Norris has told the Old Bailey he cannot remember where he was when Stephen Lawrence died but he was not involved in the killing.

Mr Norris said he was an "innocent man", adding he had not been in Eltham, south London, where Stephen was killed.

He said he was "ashamed" of secretly recorded comments made in 1994 in which he said he would torture black people.

Mr Norris, 35, and Gary Dobson, 36, deny murdering Mr Lawrence, 18, who was stabbed in April 1993.

During questioning by prosecutor Mark Ellison QC, Mr Norris was repeatedly asked what he had been doing on the night the teenager died.

The defendant insisted that he had not been in the area where the murder took place.

He said: "You are accusing me of murder. I am an innocent man."

He insisted he had not been in the Eltham area on 22 April 1993, when Stephen was fatally stabbed.

Mr Ellison asked: "How do you know that?"

"Because I am innocent," replied Mr Norris.

The year after Mr Lawrence's death, Mr Norris was caught on a police surveillance video shot over several days, which shows the two defendants interacting with various friends and acquaintances.

Mr Norris told the jury: "I apologise for what you've had to listen to in the courtroom."

Extracts of the surveillance footage, shot at co-defendant Mr Dobson's flat in Eltham, were played in court again.

Mr Norris was captured using extreme racist and the most sexually explicit language to describe how he would kill black people, people of Pakistani origin and police officers.

Later he went on: "I would go down Catford and places like that I am telling you now, with two sub machine guns."

Using the same racist and sexually explicit language he said he would take a black person, torture them, skin them alive and set them 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."

The trial continues.