Police investigating the murder of Stephen Lawrence believe new evidence could be used to charge the original suspects with his murder for a second time.

It has been reported that DNA and forensic evidence missed in the original investigation in 1993 could enable the five men to be tried for murder.

Stephen Lawrence was 18 when he was stabbed to death at a bus stop in Eltham in April 1993.

His parents tried but failed to bring a successful private prosecution against the five suspects.

But in November 2007 it was reported that police had found fibres linking the suspects to the murder scene.

Reports in the national press today claim scientists are now focusing on a fresh analysis of samples of paint, fibres and DNA - in blood and saliva - recovered from the murder scene and suspects' homes.

The new evidence raises the possibility of the suspects being tried for a second time.

This would be permitted since the government repealed the so-called "double jeopardy" law in 2005, which previously prevented a person from being tried twice for the same crime.

The reports come in a week of successful high-profile convictions in the cases of Suffolk serial killer Steve Wright and Sally Anne Bowman's killer Mark Dixie.

In both of these cases DNA profiling was used as evidence, prompting calls from some senior police officers and judges for a national DNA database.

Yesterday, Home Office minister Tony McNulty is reported to have said that a national DNA base raises issues about civil liberties and would be "impractical".

The UK's DNA database is already the biggest in the world and holds genetic information about more than 4.5m people.

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