AFTER what he describes as the worst week of his professional life, Sir Ian Blair learnt last night that he was also being accused by the parents of Jean Charles de Menezes of trying to buy their silence with a $1 million (£560,000) compensation offer.

Maria, Mr de Menezes’s mother, dismissed this as “blood money”, saying that no amount of cash would stop her coming to London to ask Sir Ian why he told lies about her son, who was shot when he was mistaken for a terrorist suspect on a Tube train at Stockwell station on July 22.

Discussions with the family about money were supposed to be confidential, but then every move Scotland Yard has made in recent days has only landed Sir Ian and his officers in more controversy.

Police said last night that it was pointless to deny making a $1 million offer because the de Menezes family would again dominate the headlines today.

Senior officers know they have taken a battering this past week and just hope that there are no other embarrassments in store for them or their boss.

In the past 72 hours Sir Ian has denied allegations of trying to cover up his officers’ mistakes and become embroiled in a slanging match with the independent watchdog, which said that he tried to stop it investigating the killing.

Yasmin Khan, a lawyer for the Justice4Jean campaign, compared the conduct of police to an episode of Laurel and Hardy. The signs are that next week will only get worse for Sir Ian and others involved in the various inquiries into how Mr de Menezes was mistaken for a suicide bomber.

There is likely to be a diplomatic row with Brazil. Two of its senior judges are due to meet officials running the investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) on Monday.

The Brazilians expect to see more evidence than what was leaked to the press over the past week, but senior officials at the IPCC say the judges will be disappointed.

One said: “They will be told no more than the lawyers for the de Menezes family and we will not be sharing our evidence with them.” The Brazilian Government has already expressed outrage at the witness testimony and photographs of Mr de Menezes dead on the floor of a Tube train being leaked and will not take kindly to being kept in the dark.

There is also certain to be a row over claims last night that it may take years before the IPCC’s findings are published.

Officials there have confirmed to The Times that their files have to go to the coroner and possibly the Crown Prosecution Service and cannot be published until a decision has been taken on an inquest and the possible prosecution of officers involved in the shooting.

On past experience, it could well be 2008 before anyone appears in court, if at all.

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