TWO police marksmen have been arrested on suspicion of murder, six years after they shot dead a decorator who was carrying a table leg.

After two inquests, two High Court hearings and years of tortuous investigations into the killing of Harry Stanley, his family said last night that the two Scotland Yard officers must face trial.

Yesterday’s arrests provoked a furious reaction from fellow police marksmen, who are threatening to lay down their weapons in a rebellion which could hamper security plans for the G8 summit of international leaders. Some members of the Yard’s elite SO19 firearms unit are already refusing to carry guns, saying that these arrests have shattered morale.

In an unprecedented move, the Metropolitan Police condemned the action by detectives from Surrey and insisted that the two officers — Chief Inspector Neil Sharman and PC Kevin Fagan — will remain in their posts, on full pay.

Senior Yard officers are appalled that Surrey Police obtained a court injunction to prevent them from telling the officers what the new evidence was before they were questioned. Surrey detectives claim to have uncovered new forensic science evidence but would not say what they have found.

The new evidence is believed to relate to the direction and distance from which the fatal shot was fired. The two marksmen maintain that Stanley was shot from a considerable distance.

Stanley, a 46-year-old Scot and father of three, was shot in the head and hand after the officers had been wrongly tipped off that he was a suspected Irish terrorist gunman.

The two marksmen have always maintained that they believed Stanley was going to open fire on them after they challenged him as he left a pub close to his home in Hackney, East London, in September 1999. They believed that he was pointing a shotgun at them when in fact he was carrying a table leg in a carrier bag.

Yesterday the two officers were bailed until June 16 after being questioned by Surrey Police on suspicion of murder, gross negligence, manslaughter and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Lawyers for the Crown Prosecution Service will now review this new evidence and decide whether they should be charged.

Steve House, the Yard’s Assistant Commissioner for central operations, said last night: “The investigations and inquiries into this tragic incident have now been running for nearly six years, and the time this has taken can only have increased the strain placed on all concerned.

“These officers were asked to make a split-second life-and- death decision as a result of the armed policing duties they had volunteered for.”

Glen Smyth, chairman of the Met Police Federation, described the treatment of the two officers as “disgusting”, adding: “They have been subjected to appalling treatment and we pledge the federation’s full and unwavering support.

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