Gary Dobson drops Stephen Lawrence murder appeal Last summer, applications for permission to appeal by both men were rejected by a single judge who considered the papers from the case. But Dobson and Norris, who are both in their thirties, still had the right to renew their applications before a panel of judges sitting at the Court of Appeal. The trial judge, Mr Justice Treacy, described the murder as a "terrible and evil crime." He urged police not to "close the file" on catching the rest of the killers after the Old Bailey heard that a gang of five or six white youths set upon A-level student Stephen in Eltham, south-east London, in 1993. He said the murder was committed "for no other reason than racial hatred." Mr Justice Treacy told the pair: "A totally innocent 18-year-old youth on the threshold of a promising life was brutally cut down in the street in front of eyewitnesses by a racist, thuggish gang." The breakthrough in the investigation came when a cold case team of forensic scientists was called in.