Evolving techniques used by a team of experts working in secret are believed to have uncovered fresh evidence which may bring the five suspects in the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence back to court.

They could be rearrested after what has been described as a “breathtaking” forensic breakthrough.

Fibres from the clothes worn by the black 18-year-old are said to have matched those found on garments thought to have been worn by the suspects at the time of the attack.

The A level student was fatally stabbed at a bus stop near to his home in Eltham, southeast London in April, 1993.

An inquest in 1997 ruled that he had been “unlawfully killed in a completely unprovoked racist attack by five white youths”.

Soon after Stephen’s death Neil Acourt and his brother Jamie, David Norris, Gary Dobson and Luke Knight were arrested in connection with the murder.

In 1996, Mr Dobson, 32, Mr Acourt, 32, and Mr Knight, 31, were acquitted of murder after a private prosecution brought by the Lawrence family collapsed.

All five have consistently denied the allegations made against them.

A reinvestigation was begun in February 1999, but this also led to no charges being brought.

However, two years ago the double jeopardy law which banned suspects from being tried twice was scrapped, and now those suspects earlier cleared of the murder could be put in the dock once again.

The experts are thought to have examined hundreds of exhibits including the clothes worn by Stephen on the night of his death and garments believed to have been worn by the five suspects that day.

It is also now thought that a sixth youth was involved during the attack.

(BMcC)