Stephen Lawrence's body to return to UK three decades after racist murder

LONDON (Reuters) - The body of Stephen Lawrence, a Black teenager killed in an unprovoked racist attack in London three decades ago, will be returned to Britain from Jamaica where he was originally buried, his mother said on Thursday.

The family made the decision public after images of Lawrence's grave taken after the funeral home exhumed his body began circulating on social media.

Lawrence was 18 when he was killed in 1993 while waiting for a bus in Eltham, southeast London, by a gang of white men.

His killing and the police's handling of the investigation prompted a judge-led inquiry that accused the capital's force of "institutional racism," professional incompetence and a failure of leadership.

The inquiry became a watershed moment in the history of race relations in Britain.

Lawrence's family had buried him on the Caribbean island of Jamaica because they felt he could not be at peace in Britain.

"After 31 years, we have decided as a family that we would like to bring Stephen home to be closer to us," his mother Doreen Lawrence said in a statement.

"We would like to express our distress at the funeral home's lack of regard for our feelings and privacy, as evidenced by the decision to leave Stephen's grave open to the public, rather than closed off," Lawrence said.

Lawrence said the family were disheartened someone had taken images and posted them online without consideration for the potential impact.

"We had hoped to have carried out this sensitive task privately, but due to unforeseen circumstances, this was not possible," she said, asking that the images be removed from all media platforms.

(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by Giles Elgood)