Guardian : De Menezes commander insists decisions correct

De Menezes commander insists decisions correct

James Orr and agencies | Guardian Unlimited | October 23, 2007

The commander in charge of the police officers who shot dead Jean Charles de Menezes maintained today that her decisions on the day had been correct.

Cressida Dick, who has since been promoted to deputy assistant commissioner, said she had considered the events leading up to the death of the innocent Brazilian "hundreds and hundreds of times".

Ms Dick said suggestions that she might have lied in court about the shooting were "outrageous".

She instead insisted that both she and her team had done "our very best trying to save life". Ms Dick still faces possible disciplinary action over the shooting of De Menezes, 27, at Stockwell tube station in south London, the Old Bailey heard.

The Metropolitan police is on trial over alleged "catastrophic" errors leading to the Brazilian's death on July 22 2005, when he was mistaken for a suicide bomber.

De Menezes was shot seven times by firearms officers who followed him to the underground from flats linked to the July 21 terrorist Hussain Osman.

Ms Dick, who was in overall charge of the police operation on the day, said: "I have of course thought hundreds and hundreds of times what might have been different, what might have kept Mr de Menezes alive.

"In relation to my own decisions, given what I now know and what I was told at the time, I wouldn't change those decisions."

Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting, suggested it was Ms Dick's job to ensure everything "reasonable and practical" was done to manage the risks of the operation and that she had fallen "well short" of that objective.

Ms Dick replied: "I entirely disagree. I, like everybody else, was coming into work that morning with the intention of trying to keep everybody safe.

"I and others acted diligently throughout. We did our very best trying to save life."

Asked by Ronald Thwaites QC, defending, how she felt at the suggestion that she had lied to the court, she said: "My initial reaction was that it is outrageous. I would never do that."

Mr Thwaites asked her if she was the kind of person who would be prepared to admit that she had failed in her duty.

She said: "Absolutely, I would like to think [I would be] the first person to recognise if I had failed. I would say so, I would say so quickly."

The court heard Ms Dick was told in November 2005 that she might face criminal charges, including manslaughter, over the incident and only learned in July 2006 that they had been dropped.

She may still face internal disciplinary procedures following the end of the current trial, the jury was told.

The Met denies a single charge under health and safety laws. The hearing continues.