Sir Ian Blair was criticised yesterday for blocking an independent inquiry into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, but the embattled Metropolitan Police Commissioner insisted again that he would not resign.

A report into the killing at Stockwell Tube station in South London said that Sir Ian had prevented the Independent Police Complaints Commission from beginning its investigation into the incident for three days.

That delay, the IPCC said in its long-awaited Stockwell 1 report, had given officers time to alter a surveillance log and allowed conspiracy theories to build up about the shooting of Mr de Menezes.

“The commissioner attempted to prevent us carrying out an investigation,” said Nick Hardwick, chairman of the IPCC. “In my view, much of the avoidable difficulty the Stockwell incident has caused the Metropolitan Police arose from that delay in referral to us.”

Expert View

Sir Ian will soldier on, but his every action will be scrutinised. Should he put a foot out of line, his critics will pounce and ministers will get nervous

Sean O'Neill

• More

• Post a comment

Factfile: revelations from the de Menezes trial

Information about the police killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, on July 22, 2005, that has emerged during the trial

Multimedia

• Pictures: Jean Charles de Menezes

BACKGROUND

• Ian Blair survives no confidence vote

• Timeline: how de Menezes identity emerged

• Come quietly, Sir Ian – you’re banged to rights

• ‘It is my task to ensure that lessons are learnt’

Related Internet Links

• Download full report

Related Links

• Commentary: Sir Ian Blair's worst week passes with an apology but no resignation

• Not one of 17 witnesses heard the word ‘police’

• The 16 errors made by de Menezes police

Mr Hardwick pointedly refused to offer his support to Sir Ian, who has faced calls for his resignation since the Met was fined £175,000 over the shooting at a trial at the Old Bailey last week. He said: “I am not going to get into the debate about Sir Ian’s future. It is not a matter for us.”

Sir Ian responded by admitting that he had made a mistake by not allowing the IPCC team access to where Mr de Menezes, a Brazilian, was shot after being mistaken for a suicide bomber. He said, however, that he had acted with “the best motives” fearing that an IPCC inquiry might hinder the continuing antiterrorist operation to find four failed suicide bombers who were at large in London.

The commissioner said that neither his error nor anything in the IPCC report required him to resign.

Sir Ian faces a further examination over the Stockwell shooting before the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) this month, but his survival chances were improved last night when the watchdog rejected disciplinary action against two of his senior officers.

The MPA rejected the IPCC’s recommendation of disciplinary sanctions against Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman and Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick. The IPCC could, however, still decide to pursue action against the two officers and a number of other senior officers.

Sir Ian said: “I intend to remain in this post. My reasoning is very simple. By the very nature of its task, the history of the Metropolitan Police service is littered with controversial events. I don’t need to repeat a litany of them now but every commissioner has such events on his watch.

“Commissioners have to be in post for enough time to drive long-term change. They have not previously widely been expected to resign over individual incidents, however grave.”

Sir Ian, who made a statement but declined to answer questions, also gave his full support to the police officers caught up in the events of July 22.

One of those, identified in the report as Laurence, has received “words of advice” – a minor disciplinary sanction – over the alterations to the surveillance log. The IPCC report said that there was “no doubt” that the log had been changed. It added: “That would not have occurred if the investigation had been referred to the IPCC immediately.”

Scientific analysis revealed that the log, a record of observations at Mr de Menezes’ home, had originally read: “A split-second view of his face. I believe it was NT.”

NT referred to Nettle Tip – the codeword for the suspected terrorist Hussain Osman.

At some point the words “and” and “not” had been inserted and the entry now read: “A split-second view of his face and I believe it was not NT”.

The report concluded: “An inference arises that because SO12 had been involved in the surveillance of Mr de Menezes, the log was altered to distance the surveillance team from the identification.”

The officer involved said that he may have altered the log to correct an error and the IPCC concluded that there was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute him for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Harriet Wistrich, solicitor for the de Menezes family, said that she would ask for any future disciplinary hearings against officers to be held in public.

She said: “The family remain determined to uncover the whole truth surrounding the tragic shooting and, where evidence allows, hold those officers individually accountable.”

Ms Wistrich is also considering taking aspects of the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, restated her “full confidence” in Sir Ian, and Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, called for an end to the “political witch-hunt” against him.

But David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, continued to call for Sir Ian to step down and said that his position was “untenable”. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said that Sir Ian “must take responsibility for having deliberately delayed the IPCC investigation”.

The main findings

— There was potential for confusion between the roles of Gold and Silver Command and Designated Senior Officer (DSO)

— Despite being the DSO, Commander Cressida Dick was not present when the strategic briefing, chaired by John McDowall, the Gold Commander, began. She had been directed to the wrong room

— No formal recording was made of any of the briefings before the deployment of firearms and surveillance officers

— The strategy set by the Gold Commander made it clear that all persons leaving Scotia Road [the target address] would be stopped and questioned. Six people left before Mr de Menezes but no one was stopped

— There was a delay of several hours between the firearms team being requested and being deployed. When Mr de Menezes left Scotia Road at 9.33am, CO19 officers were still not in place

— There was a lack of clarity about what was meant by the command to officers to “stop” the suspect

— The S012 surveillance team, the CO19 Specialist Firearms Officers and those in command were not used to working together

— That two surveillance officers believed that the person being followed was not the suspect should have been communicated to Ms Dick

— A surveillance log was altered, changing the meaning of an entry relating to the identification of Mr de Menezes

— The incident was not referred until 3.21pm on July 25, three days after the shooting, and until that time the IPCC was prevented from starting an investigation on the instruction of the commissioner

— Officers wrote up their notes together, as is the agreed practice, but it made their accounts less credible. Members of the public had to make statements soon after witnessing a traumatic event

— Communication between command and control of the incident was inevitably lost when CO19 officers entered the underground

— The Acpo Firearms manual and the Kratos policy that MPS officers relied upon in handling events in July 2005 were insufficient for the new experiences they faced

9: shots fired at Jean Charles de Menezes

17: civilian witnesses in the carriage

15: Metropolitan Police officers interviewed under caution

2: officers then given “words of advice”

0: officers charged

4: senior officers awaiting possible disciplinary action

168: pages in the IPCC report

16: IPCC recommendations

3: number of times this week Sir Ian Blair has said he will not resign

Times Recommends

• What makes the perfect mum?
• To keep me stress-free, no more awareness days, please
• What do lottery winners buy?