The Scotland Yard anti-terrorist operation that led to the death of Jean Charles de Menezes was subjected to withering condemnation yesterday by an inquest jury.

In one of the most important public examinations of police conduct, the jurors found the testimony of the officers who shot the young Brazilian to be unreliable and concluded that Metropolitan Police commanders failed their frontline colleagues.

Mr de Menezes, 27, an electrician, was shot seven times in the head by specialist firearms officers who mistook him for a suicide bomber about to blow up a London Tube train.

The jury rejected the Met’s contention that his killing was lawful and that he was the unfortunate victim of an unprecedented situation created by the July 2005 terrorist emergency.

Sir Michael Wright, QC, the coroner, had sparked controversy and cries of “whitewash” when he denied the jury the option of returning an unlawful killing verdict. However, the jurors, sitting in the unusual surroundings of the Oval cricket ground, yesterday delivered an open verdict and used their answers to a series of questions set by the coroner to set out their views.

They did not believe the claims of firearms officers that a warning of “armed police” had been shouted or that Mr de Menezes had advanced threateningly towards the policemen.

The jury also cited a catalogue of failures by the Met, ranging from poor communications between the control room and officers on the ground to not supplying officers with pictures of Hussain Osman, the terrorist whom they wanted. Those failings had contributed to the death of an innocent man.

The jurors also dismissed the notion that Mr de Menezes’s behaviour had seemed suspicious and somehow contributed to officers mistakenly deciding that he was a suicide bomber.

His family, who had withdrawn from the inquest in protest at the restrictions placed on the verdict, said that they were delighted with the result. His mother, Maria Otone de Menezes, said: “Since the moment the coroner ruled out unlawful killing, I was feeling very sad. But today I feel reborn.” She called for the dismissal of Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, the officer in overall charge of the operation.

Sir Michael said that he would be preparing a report on the police’s failings for the Home Secretary and the Met Commissioner, which he expected to be made public.

The Met says that it has made 82 reforms to its policies for tackling the threat of suicide bombers but retains the option of shoot-to-kill. Scotland Yard sources insisted last night that the verdict would not prevent the return to firearms duties of the two officers who shot Mr de Menezes. Nor, they said, was there anything in the court’s findings to require action against Ms Dick.

Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met’s Acting Commissioner, expressed his sorrow over Mr de Menezes’s death. “He was an innocent man and we must, and do, accept full responsibility for his death,” he said. “For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is something that the Metropolitan Police Service deeply regrets. In the face of enormous challenges faced by officers on that day we made a most terrible mistake.”

He also emphasised that his officers had “set out with the intention to defend and protect the public”.

The inquest, which cost about £6 million, is unlikely to be the end of the legal battles. It can be reported now that the family went to the High Court last week in an aborted attempt to challenge Sir Michael’s decision to rule out an unlawful killing verdict.

The Justice4Jean campaign said it would continue to seek a judicial review of the coroner’s decision while Harriet Wistrich, the family’s solicitor, called on the Crown Prosecution Service to examine whether police officers had perjured themselves. A CPS spokesman confirmed that it was considering the inquest evidence and would decide whether it needed to review its decision in 2006 not to bring murder or manslaughter charges.

Nick Hardwick, the chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, called for a broad public debate on how the police should respond to the threat of suicide terrorism.

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