POLICE marksmen and senior Scotland Yard officers who were involved in the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes could face criminal charges, senior investigators warned yesterday.

Nick Hardwick, chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), said he expected a report on the botched counter-terror operation at Stockwell Underground station in South London to be sent to the Crown Prosecution Service within weeks.

This is the clearest indication yet that a number of officers who mistook the Brazilian electrician for a suicide bomber could be brought to court.

The remarks “dismayed” the de Menezes family, who accused the IPCC of leaking details of their inquiry after promising that they would remain confidential. A spokesman for the family said: “The IPCC criticised Scotland Yard for briefing the media and say they are investigating why police gave their misleading version of what happened in the station, and now they appear to be doing the same.”

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, also criticised the IPCC last night for its admission that it had still not questioned the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair. Mr Davis described this admission as “inexplicable”. He said: “The public expect no stone to be left unturned in this inquiry. The last thing anyone wants is to encourage conspiracy theories about a cover-up.”

The inquiry would not confirm last night whether it had received a written statement from Sir Ian. A separate IPCC inquiry is being held into the Scotland Yard chief’s handling of the affair. This was announced last week, after the de Menezes family lodged an official complaint alleging that he and other senior officers made false public statements after the shooting.

Mr Hardwick said that a separate investigation had yet to begin, but any disciplinary measures would be a matter for the police authority overseeing Scotland Yard.

He insisted that the IPCC had spoken to everyone it needed to for the inquiry into the shooting itself, but would not say why Sir Ian was not among those interviewed.

He said. “We are confident we know, second by second, what happened on that train.”

Questioned about reports that some of the CCTV tapes from the Tube station platform may have been missing, Mr Hardwick said: “We are comfortable that we have all the tapes that exist. We have always said the tapes are significant.”

John Cummins, a senior investigator, admitted there had been “problems” with some of the equipment, but did not elaborate further. He said that no film had been withheld by Scotland Yard or anyone else.

The family has expressed concern that some of the CCTV equipment covering the platform and vital areas of Stockwell station were said to be out of order on the day.

Police have used the film to reconstruct Mr de Menezes’s last journey from the time he boarded a bus near his South London home until the time he arrived at Stockwell Tube. The inquiry team would not reveal what gaps there were in the CCTV coverage. Mr Cummins told how investigators had traced and spoken to all 30 passengers in the train carriage at the time of the shooting as well as witnesses from the station. The team had taken 600 written statements.

Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head by anti-terror officers who were part of an operation to find a team of suicide bombers that had botched a series of attacks on London transport 24 hours earlier. Mr Hardwick said: “I am confident we will be able to answer the questions that arise out of the incident on July 22, but the distinction is we are not going to deal with the wider questions of how London is policed or this very difficult terrorist situation.”

He said that the IPCC had already sent recommendations to Scotland Yard about counter-terrorist operations and the deployment of marksmen.

Nine officers, including Commander Cressida Dick, who had the responsibility to give any command to open fire, have been told that they are under investigation. Mr Hardwick said that the IPCC had to decide whether its findings indicated that criminal offences might have taken place.

Its report could include an indication of the specific offences the IPCC believes may have been committed.

But Mr Hardwick underlined that the IPCC had a lower standard of test than the CPS. The report would say only that an officer “may” have committed an offence and the CPS would have to decide whether to bring charges.

ARMS AND MEN

6,243 Police marksmen

15,981 Armed operations

5 Incidents where police opened fire

18 Shots fired

3 Deaths

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