UK’s National Crime Agency, Britain’s equivalent of the FBI has begun an investigation into allegations that corruption in the Metropolitan police shielded the killers of a black student more than two decades ago.

The NCA will focus on the first police investigation carried out in 1993 into the murder of the 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence. According to media reports, Lawrence was surrounded and stabbed by a racist gang in Eltham, south-east London. He was a gifted student who wanted to be an architect, his family were churchgoing model citizens, and were stunned when police failed them.

Since his murder, Lawrence’s parents have always claimed that corrupt officers engaged in a conspiracy thwarting the hunt for the killers. The Met vehemently denies the claim.

His mother, Doreen said: “We still believe that corruption played a part in keeping Stephen’s killers free. We have had to fight to get this far, so we can finally have a criminal investigation into the former police officers we suspect.”

The investigation follows a review ordered by the home secretary, Theresa May, into the Lawrences’ concerns. It named a former officer as a suspect and advocated further inquiries into others.

The case has sparked inquiries, reforms of the police and challenges to racial attitudes in Britain.

It took more than 18 years to bring to justice two of the killers in 20-12 and sentencing them to life in prison.

London-based activist and analyst Lee Jasper has told Press TV that the stark injustice was committed systematically.

He went on adding that such events have had negative social consequences including the breakdown of public's confidence in the judiciary system.