Some witnesses involved in the Stephen Lawrence inquiry are still under police protection, a year after their names and addresses were mistakenly published.

Twenty-five people had to move home when their details were released in the Macpherson report into the teenager's death.

Some children had to be transferred to different schools, and two people had to find new jobs.

Now the BBC has learned that some of them remain under police guard.

Greenwich Council, which organised the operation to rehouse the witnesses, says the police protection operation is continuing.

A housing official told BBC Radio 5 Live, "They have never truly recovered from the fear which exploded at that time."

Hate mail

Some of the witnesses have received medical help for stress caused by the blunder and the upheaval of moving. A number of them are now considering legal action.

All the families concerned had given information to the police murder investigation, and were horrified when their details were published. More than half of them had received hate mail or abusive phone calls.

The costs of the operation to rehouse and protect them, estimated at around £700,000, are being met by the Home Office.

No one has been convicted of the murder of Mr Lawrence, 18, who was fatally stabbed by white youths at a bus stop in south-east London in April 1993.

The Macpherson report found that "institutional racism" and police incompetence wrecked the chances of securing justice in the case.

Three suspects in the murder case - Neil Acourt, Gary Dobson and Luke Knight - were cleared of murder at the Old Bailey in 1996. They cannot be prosecuted again for the same offence.

Proceedings against two further suspects - David Norris and Jamie Acourt - were dropped at an early stage.