Lawrence murder: 'If we can finally get justice, I will die a happy man' says Stephen's father

For three months, his father Neville has been unable to visit the simple white marble headstone, sculpted like the pages of a book and adorned with a photograph of Stephen, smiling and handsome.

But the inclement weather has not interrupted his thoughts, or altered his one remaining hope - that the murderers can still be brought to justice.

Of the developments in the police investigation, he says: "You can be excited. But at the same time, because of what has happened so far, I'm really careful about getting too excited about anything.

"I want to see the results before I allow myself to get carried away again. I've been let down too many times. I'm pleased about what I'm hearing so far, but I'm waiting to see what develops."

Once a respected, upmarket painter and decorator, Mr Lawrence lived in London for 42 years, and raised his family there.

He moved back to Jamaica five years ago after his marriage to Stephen's mother, Doreen, collapsed under the strain of the fallout from the case.

While Mrs Lawrence chose to remain in South-East London, where she runs the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust and lives close to their surviving children, Stuart, 29, and Georgina, 25, (and only a few miles from the suspects) Neville sought solitude, retiring to live alone on the island of his birth.

"Here I have been at peace because I'm away from everything," he said, speaking to me exclusively yesterday.

"When I'm in London I feel so claustrophobic because I can never escape what happened. Everywhere I go I see something that reminds me of Stephen.

"I do go back to England every summer, but only to see one or two friends and Georgina and Stuart.

"They follow every development in the case and they have had a lot to deal with, but fortunately they seem to have ridden the wave remarkably well, and they're getting on with their lives now.

"Georgina is about to graduate in design, and her little girl is three years old. Stuart is a graphic design teacher in Dulwich.

"The other reason I came back to Jamaica is to be close to my son. We deliberately chose to bury Stephen as far away as possible from the sort of people who killed him so that he would never be disturbed again.

"He is lying beside his grandmother in an inaccessible place that you would never find unless you knew where to look.

"But parts of the road have been washed away recently, and it's an hour and a half away, so unfortunately I haven't been able to drive there. I've really missed sitting with Stephen."

He is reluctant to talk about the new developments for fear of prejudicing any future legal proceedings.

But he is aware that they will bring pressure for him to return to England. For the time being, at least, he will resist.

"In a sense it's harder for me to be here because I'm not able to raise questions and keep right up with what's happening in the case.

"Last night, for instance, I was on the phone to London till 10pm, then up again at 5am and back on the phone. It's like me watching something unfold from afar and not being able to participate in it.

"I would rather be in the thick of it, but when I'm in London it gets kind of overpowering sometimes. Being 4,000 miles away is a sort of release."

He remains angry about the errors that marred successive investigations, but he is not about to re-open those wounds.

"I'm not going to point the finger at any one person. The blaming has all been done."

There is a lengthy pause down the transatlantic phone line. Then, typically, Mr Lawrence seeks to end the conversation on a positive note.

"They say that good things come from bad," he says. "And because we in his family are the ones who are paying the price, that's sometimes hard to remember.

"But the fact is that people are more able to discuss racist issues because of Stephen's murder. The double jeopardy law has also been changed, which is a change that was badly needed.

"That said, I still have a dream, and it is that someone will one day go to jail for what they did to my son. It hasn't happened yet, and it may not happen for many years.

"But even if the latest events don't produce the result we want, I will never give up. I am determined to see justice for Stephen.

"And only when that day comes will I die a happy man."