The unpublished findings from the police watchdog are a potential fresh embarrassment to the Metropolitan police, emerging after a sixth suspect in the 1993 killing of the black teenager was identified, leading to calls from Lawrence's father and best friend to reopen the investigation into his murder.
The Met faces claims it let Matthew White - who died in 2021 - slip through its fingers despite him being named at least twice to police.
The latest revelations from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) concern what the Met told the Macpherson inquiry, as it investigated claims that corruption shielded Lawrence's killers.
The IOPC examined claims that the inquiry, set up by government, had not been passed information held by the Met. The IOPC inquiry followed a complaint by Neville Lawrence, Stephen's father, but its findings have not been made public until now.
The Lawrence family long suspected that corruption had blighted the murder investigation and tried to pursue this at the Macpherson inquiry, which held hearings in 1998, and which reported a year later ruling out corruption.
The Guardian has learned that the IOPC has concluded that details about a detective in the Lawrence case, John Davidson, and his emergence as a suspect for corruption, should have been given to Macpherson.
The senior IOPC official Sarah Green wrote:"The investigation has identified that further information was available that could and should have been disclosed by the MPS to the Macpherson inquiry."
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