Bermuda detectives are getting first hand advice from a former British officer who led the investigation into the bungled probe into the murder of black teen Stephen Lawrence.

The 18-year-old A student was murdered on the streets of London in 1993 but five suspects were cleared in the trial after a botched Police operation.

Former Assistant Chief Constable of the Kent Constabulary David Clapperton led the investigation into what went wrong and said Britain and now Bermuda could learn from the mistakes.

He is now in Bermuda leading the senior investigators course showing how to run major crime scenes. The course, now in its second week, has 15 officers in the Bermuda force and five from Caribbean islands.

Mr. Clapperton said: ?Most of the issues we are dealing with here came from that (Lawrence inquiry).

?The failings and shortcomings of the case of Stephen Lawrence were about the competence of the lead investigator.

?And also whether institutional racism in the Police system in the UK, their systems and processes, discriminated against the black community. The public inquiry found both those issues present ? that there was incompetence.

?It?s the incompetence issue I am dealing with in the training field.?

?There were five prime suspects in the Stephen Lawrence case and without any doubt four of those suspects should have been arrested within the first 48 hours and they weren?t.

?They were not arrested for 15 days. Consider the investigative opportunities that were missed as a result of waiting 15 days to arrest them.

?They knew of their names and they knew where they were living, they knew they had a propensity to commit these sort of crime and yet they waited 15 days. It was that delay which caused many of the problems with the Stephen Lawrence case.

?The case of Stephen Lawrence has changed the way we police in the UK tremendously.

?Much of the training programme in the UK has been based on the lessons to be learned from the Stephen Lawrence case.

?Not just us the investigators but also the way we handled the scene, the way in which we dealt with the first aid, the way in which we dealt with the family by way of victim liaison.?

The course has been running in the UK for the last five years.

Mr. Clapperton said it was found that in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s many high profile murder investigations failed because lead investigators made the wrong judgements and failed to exploit evidence.

A more logical and professional approach was needed.

In most cases it was vital to act quickly although occasionally delaying tactics were needed said Mr. Clapperton.

?If you have a stabbing where somebody has bled quite a lot and the weapon has been taken from the scene the opportunity to recover forensic evidence of blood and the weapon from the offender is best done if you trace the offender quickly and arrest them.

?There are several cases where the officer in charges decided to wait until he had more evidence and therefore lost that opportunity to recover forensic material and perhaps the weapon.?

Similarly identity parades needed to be run before witnesses began to forget said Mr. Clapperton. It all may seem pretty obvious, but ?people just weren?t thinking through what happens in a major crime scene investigation,? said Mr. Clapperton.

Some issues needed a fast response, others needed a long term blueprint said Mr. Clapperton.

?We want officers to think about the issues they have to deal with before they start getting led by the nose from day to day events.?

He is helping those on the course identify experts who can help them, both here and from other islands and North America. He said mobile telephone records were useful in investigations to pinpoint when and where calls were made.

?Mobile phones ping off aerials and the technology is there to determine which aerial they pinged off, so you can get some idea of the location,? said Mr. Clapperton who is being assisted by retired Detective Superintendent Colin Murray.

When paid a visit officers were looking at the gruesome results of a hammer attack on a skull.

?Anything which touches something else there?s a transfer of fibre, of images,? said Mr. Clapperton. ?If something is examined correctly by the right person at the right time you can recover useful evidence.?

Chief Inspector Stuart Crockwell said the course was unearthing new and useful information and he was learning about the forensic help available both in Bermuda and abroad.

?Everyone will come away thinking they will have grasped new investigative techniques and I am quite sure there will be a change of mind and attitude to investigating major crimes.?