The jury hearing the inquest on Jean Charles de Menezes will retire to consider its verdict today, having been instructed not to return a finding that he was unlawfully killed by police.

Sir Michael Wright, QC, the coroner, told the 11 jurors that they will have to work through the evidence from 100 witnesses and decide whether discrepancies between witnesses were “failures of recollection” or caused by misunderstanding and communication lapses at the time.

The coroner reminded the jury of the moment that “Charlie 12”, one of the policemen who shot Mr de Menezes, broke down in tears during his evidence.

“This tough, fit, highly trained, mature man broke down in tears and this fact may assist you in assessing the depth of the emotional experience that he was going through here when he was reliving the terrible events of July 22 [2005],” he said.

Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot dead on board a Tube train at Stockwell, South London, on the day after four would-be bombers tried to set off suicide devices on the transport network. The young electrician was shot seven times in the head after police officers mistook him for one of the bombers.

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