Dappy has apologised to the family of murdered teacher Phillip Lawrence after including a request to free his killer from jail in his new video.

MTV reports that Dappy took to Twitter to say sorry after including the message 'Free Learco Chindamo' at the start of his 'Tarzan 2 (I'm Coming)' video.

Chindamo was convicted of killing Lawrence in 1995 and spent 14 years behind bars before returning to prison after breaching the terms of his licence.

Dappy, who is said to have gone to the same school as Chindamo, said on Twitter that he didn't realise Chindamo's past and apologised to Lawrence's family. The tweets have since been deleted, but MTV reports that he said:

"Just wanted to say I honestly wasn't aware he did that, I knew his brother from when I was young. In no way did I intend to cause any upset and certainly didn't know about his past. My heart goes out to Mr Laurence's (sic) family and I know the pain of losing a loved one, sincerely Daps."