IT is hard to believe that almost 25 years have passed since the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence by a racist white gang on the streets of London.

Over the last quarter of a century, the dignity and strength of the teenager’s parents shone through the bungled police investigation, a public inquiry and relentless campaigns for justice.

Stephen’s father, Neville, says he has now forgiven his son’s killers – a humbling statement, especially given that only two of the thugs have ever been convicted over the stabbing.

The case led to huge police reform amid allegations of institutional racism, but have the wider lessons of his death really been learned?

Official figures show that in 2016/17, there were 80,393 hate crime offences recorded by police in England and Wales – an increase of 29 per cent on 2015/16. And recent months have seen a surge in violent crime in some parts of the UK. In London, there have been nearly 60 murders so far this year, and police have been forced to increase the use of blanket stop and search powers to seize weapons.

As the stabbings and shootings continue, the words of Mr Lawrence are more important than ever to drive home the impact of violent crime on victim’s families, and should be repeated in every school, youth centre and home across the land.

“I can’t begin to explain the pain and the anguish me and my family have suffered,” he says. “I’ve been serving a life sentence for the last 25 years and I will go on serving that until the day I die.”