Chaos
and cocaine: revelations from the de Menezes trial
Sir Ian Blair rejected calls for his resignation as Commissioner of the
Metropolitan Police today after a jury found the force guilty of a
"catastrophic" series of failings in the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes,
the Brazilian electrician shot dead two years ago after being mistaken for a
suicide bomber.
The Old Bailey jury upheld a charge against the Met of breaching its duty to
protect the public under health and safety legislation after prosecutors
detailed a series of 19 alleged errors in the police operation on July 22,
2005.
Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times by specialist firearms officers who
followed him into Stockwell Tube station in South London, mistaking him for
Hussain Osman, one of four men who had tried unsuccessfully to launch a
suicide attack on London's transport system the day before.
The family of Mr de Menezes welcomed the guilty verdict but lambasted the Met
for what they called a cynical defence against the charges.
“The police defence team descended to the gutter, seeking to shift the blame
on to the innocent victim from their own wrongdoing. We deplore the tactics
of the defence and the smearing of Jean Charles’s name,” said Harriet
Wistrich, the family’s solicitor.
“Any attempt to salvage the image of the Metropolitan Police by those in
senior positions, publicly apologising for their errors, has been undermined
by the defence put forward.”
The family went on to call for a full inquiry into the shooting. The
Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has said that it will now
make public its main report into the killing 'within days'. The study, known
as “Stockwell 1”, could not be published until the trial was completed.
Nick Hardwick, the chairman of the IPCC, said: “The Met’s mission is to make
London safer. On this one occasion, they failed.”
The six men and five women on the jury agreed with that assessment to reach a
guilty verdict but they attached a rare rider to their verdict The foreman
told the court that they attached "no personal culpability" to Deputy
Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, the officer in charge of the operation
that day.
Sir Ian welcomed that finding, as he did a remark by the trial judge, Mr
Justice Henriques, that the force's failings had been "an isolated breach
brought about by quite extraordinary circumstances".
That meant, he told reporters outside the Old Bailey, that there had been no
systemic or repeated failure within the organisation he heads. "And I
therefore intend to continue to lead the Met in its increasingly successful
efforts to reduce crime and deter and disrupt terrorist activities in London
and elsewhere in the United Kingdom," he said.
The Met was fined £175,000 and ordered to pay £385,000 costs, although Mr
Justice Henriques made clear that the fine would have been much higher if
the Met had not been a public body responsible for frontline policing.
Sir Ian, whose office was effectively on trial during the case, had said
before it started that he feared a guilty verdict would have a "profound"
impact on policing throughout the UK. The Scotland Yard chief had also come
under fire over the fact that he was not promptly told that an innocent man
had been shot.
Both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats called for his resignation after the
verdict to help restore Londoners' faith in their police force – although
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, Gordon Brown and Ken Livingstone, Mayor of
London, gave him their backing.
David Davies, the Shadow Home Secretary, criticised the fact that the trial
had been under health and safety legislation. "However, the trial has shed
light on the serial failures that led to the tragic death of Mr De Menezes,"
he added. "They include failures of organisation, command and operations.”
He added: "We think the jury is right to say Cressida Dick should not be
blamed for this failure. Neither, should the frontline officers, because
this was a serial failure of organisation, training, tactics and resourcing.
Only one person can be held overall accountable for that."
Ronald Thwaites, QC, representing the Met, had told the jury that Mr de
Menezes was acting in an "aggressive and threatening manner" when challenged
by officers. But campaigners reacted angrily to the way police defended the
case, accusing them of a "sickening" attempt to blacken Mr de Menezes’s
name.
There was also a bitter courtroom battle over prosecution claims that a
composite image of the Brazilian victim and Osman, produced by the defence,
had been doctored to make them look more alike.
The trial and investigation is estimated to have cost around £3.5 million in
public money. But it was nearly derailed after an armed police raid on the
home of a juror’s ex-boyfriend in the second week of the case, in which the
female juror’s baby was taken away.
During the trial, prosecutors claimed that "fundamental failures" at all
levels led to the death of Mr de Menezes. Police were unsure if he was in
fact Osman but still allowed him unchallenged onto two buses and a Tube
train.
Surveillance officers who were following him asked their Scotland Yard control
room more than once if they should arrest him but were told to wait for the
arrival of SO19 firearms officers.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dick, who has since been promoted, denied claims
that she missed the "one safe opportunity" to stop him and that she lost
control of the operation.
She said that she was told five times that the man police were following was
Osman. Mr de Menezes was followed from a block of flats at Scotia Road,
Tulse Hill, South London, that was linked to Osman.
The surveillance operation at the block was launched at 4.55am but SO19
officers had still not arrived four hours later when Mr de Menezes, an
electrician, left on his way to work. An officer who was meant to identify
him as he came out of the communal doors was unable to do so as he was
"relieving himself", the court heard.
It was also alleged that there was a "noisy and chaotic" atmosphere in the
16th floor control room which "cannot have helped" the decision-making
process. Surveillance and firearms officers whose identities are protected
and who the court was told "live in the shadows" gave evidence to the trial
under assumed names and behind screens.
One of them, firearms team leader Ralph, broke down in court as he defended
the actions of his men, who ran down into the station after the man they
believed was a suicide bomber.
"Despite the outcome, I was very proud of them," he said.
Ralph, who was in charge of the SO19 "black team", said he was told over the
radio that the man being pursued was "our man" and was acting "nervous and
twitchy". The court heard that the firearms officers were issued with highly
deadly "dumdum" bullets and told that they might have to use "new and
unusual tactics" and "might have to shoot someone point blank in the head".
However, the "Kratos" command for dealing with suspected suicide bombers by
shooting them dead without warning was never issued, the Old Bailey was
told.
A surveillance officer, known as Ivor, told how he followed Mr de Menezes into
the Tube carriage, grabbing him and pinning him to his seat when he realised
firearms officers were there, and shouting: "Here he is."
The innocent Brazilian was then shot five times in the head, once in the neck
and once in the shoulder, by two SO19 officers. Jurors saw CCTV footage of
the marksmen, codenamed C2 and C12, heading down the escalator into the
station, but they did not give evidence.
The court was also shown pictures of Mr de Menezes after the shooting, lying
dead on the floor of the Tube carriage.
Mr Justice Henriques had told the jury that the police were not "above the
law". But Mr Thwaites said a conviction would have the effect of "putting
handcuffs on the police". He said the prosecution should never have been
brought and that Mr de Menezes was acting like a suicide bomber when he was
shot.
The jury also heard evidence that Mr de Menezes had taken cocaine and had a
forged stamp in his passport. Mr Thwaites even accused the judge of bias,
claiming his summing up had been "entirely pro-prosecution, unbalanced and
totally lacking in objectivity".
Meanwhile Ms Dick, gold commander of the Scotland Yard operation on the day,
who spent four days giving evidence, said she was outraged at the perceived
questioning of her integrity by the prosecution. She is one of four senior
officers still facing possible disciplinary charges over the shooting.
