Two could be charged over DNA link to Stephen Lawrence's murder

Police believe they have gathered sufficient forensic evidence to charge at least two of the original Stephen Lawrence murder suspects.

And hopes are high that they will soon be in a position to prosecute other members of the race-hate gang who stabbed the teenage student to death 15 years ago.

Senior officers are privately confident that new DNA and fibre evidence, missed during the bungled first investigation, will enable them to put a number of the original suspects on trial.

The development follows a sensational forensic breakthrough revealed by the Daily Mail in November.

Further details of the astonishing progress in the case emerged yesterday when forensic experts revealed that they are focusing on samples of paint, fibres and DNA - in blood and saliva - said to have been retrieved from the murder scene and suspects' houses.

A source with knowledge of the latest Scotland Yard inquiry into the case, ordered 18 months ago by Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, said: "There will be significant developments in the next few months."

It is understood that police are examining the possibility that a sixth youth could have been involved in the murder.

Stephen, an 18-year-old A-level student, was stabbed to death by a gang of white youths in Eltham, South-East London, on April 22, 1993.

Gary Dobson, Neil Acourt and Luke Knight were acquitted of murder in 1996, when a private prosecution brought by the Lawrence family collapsed after evidence from Stephen's friend Duwayne Brooks was rejected.

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The case against two other suspects, Jamie Acourt, now 31, and David Norris, 31, was dropped before it reached court.

In February 1997, the day after an inquest jury decided Stephen was unlawfully killed "in a completely unprovoked racist attack by five white youths", the Daily Mail took the landmark decision to publish the murder suspects' names and photographs under the headline "Murderers".

The paper challenged the five to sue for libel if they believed they could clear their names.

Under "double jeopardy" laws introduced in 2005, suspects acquitted of murder can now be retried if there is "new and compelling evidence" - raising the prospect that Dobson, now 32, Neil Acourt, 32, and Knight, 31, could go on trial again at the Old Bailey.

A top QC is already advising the Crown Prosecution Service about the investigative strategy.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Ken Macdonald QC - who will have to authorise new charges - is receiving regular updates on the case.

Prosecution sources are already predicting an almighty legal battle should charges be brought.

Lawyers representing the suspects are likely to argue that the case should be thrown out because there has been an "abuse of process" by the police, who should have obtained the evidence much earlier.

Four years ago Scotland Yard appeared to admit defeat in the hunt for Stephen's killers after the Crown Prosecution Service told detectives there was insufficient evidence to bring fresh charges over the murder.

The decision followed a £ 30million inquiry by the Met, which included a comprehensive reinvestigation of the case that took five years.

Despite the inquiry - the biggest ever conducted by the Yard - detectives were then unable to say with any certainty who actually stabbed Stephen.

The announcement closed a particularly painful chapter for the Met, which was forced to set about overhauling its attitudes on race after a Daily Mail campaign.

The latest inquiry into the case is headed by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick and involves a team of around 30 officers based at a police building in South London.