Met: Menezes' death a mistake but not a crime
Updated on 02 October 2007
A court hears how police were not properly briefed at the Met Police's health and safety trial over Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes' death.
Firearms officers were told to expect a suicide bomber who was 'up for it' and should be stopped 'at any cost'. That is what a court has been told, but the police were not properly briefed.
Prosecutors at the health and safety trial of the Metropolitan Police said the Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes died because of 'obvious confusion' on the part of police.
Special ammo
The Met denies putting the public at risk: their defence said the anti-terrorism squad was facing unprecedented challenges and Mr Meneze's death was a terrible mistake, but not a crime.
The Met's firearms unit had special 124 grain ammunition that morning, a type of ammunition which when fired into a head, the court heard, produced death much more quickly.
Met's mistakes
One of the team, said the prosecution, had been told to expect unusual tactics that day, which he interpreted as meaning that they may have to shoot someone point blank in the head.
Clare Montgomery told the court that as the firearms unit approached Stockwell station that morning, one officer, codenamed 'Vic', heard Trojan 84 say over the radio, 'they've said he's got to be stopped. Do not let him on the tube. Do NOT let him on the tube.'
The tone of voice and the urgency of the communication, combined with the intelligence indicated to 'Vic' that the subject had to be stopped immediately 'at any cost'.
It should never have come to that, said the prosecution. The firearms unit should have mobilised much earlier. The unit's pace, said Miss Montgomery, was nearly funereal.
As for those officers who were watching the flats at 21 Scotia Road that morning, she insisted that they should have at least stopped and questioned people emerging from the flats.
Madrid reference
This a reference to events following the terror attacks on 10 commuter trains in Madrid, three years ago.
The bombers had taken refuge in a block of flats and when the police entered the building, the bombers, having spotted the unit, detonated further explosions killing themselves and the police officer leading the assault.
The case against the Met police was summarised as a series of major failures.
However, the prosecution asserted that there is only one conclusion: the public were exposed to very real dangers that morning that could have been avoided - and one innocent man paid the ultimate price, receiving seven bullets in his head.
19 separate failings include:
Failure to question residents of Scotia Road
Failure to deploy officers to stop and question people leaving 21 Scotia Road
Failure to deploy firearms team to Scotia Road
Failure to ensure a firearms team was in attendence at Scotia Road when Jean Charles left
Inaccurate and unbalanced briefings
Giving "inaccurate and unbalanced" briefings to firearms officers
Failure to communicate doubts of De Menezes
Failure to tell the relevant officers about doubts over the identity of Jean Charles
Failure to prevent a suspected suicide bomber getting on a bus
Failure to prevent him getting on a bus and entering a tube station despite being a suspected suicide bomber
Prosecution's report
The prosecution outlined 19 separate failings on the part of the Metropolitan police.
