Cherry Groce shooting: victim of ‘unreasonable’ operation

Details of a secret report into the 1985 police shooting of Cherry Groce have emerged for the first time at the opening of the inquest into her death.

The internal inquiry carried out by an assistant chief constable concludes the West Indian mother was the victim of an operation which was unreasonable, presented grave risks and should never have taken place.

A jury at Southwark Coroners Court was told that the police bullet crippled Mrs Groce who subsequently spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

She died in 2011, 26 years after she was accidently shot during a police raid on her home in Brixton in the hunt for one of her sons who wasn’t there at the time.

The report, by ACC John Domaille of West Yorkshire police, described how the shooter, Inspector Douglas Lovelock kicked open a downstairs door with the gun held in both hands.

“He was entering a highly dangerous environment with an absence of knowledge about anything or anyone in the house”

The report states that the inspector when interviewed denied any intention to fire, and said it was due to a reflex action when he tensed up and that his finger was on the trigger when he entered the room.

The retired officer, now aged 71 , is one of the witnesses to be called during the week long inquest.

He was acquitted of malicious wounding and grievous bodily harm following an Old Bailey trial in 1987.

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