Times of London : Scotland Yard guilty over De Menezes death

Scotland Yard guilty over De Menezes death

Philippe Naughton | November 1, 2007

Sir Ian Blair came under pressure to resign as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police today after a jury found the force guilty of a "catastrophic" series of failings in the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead at Stockwell Tube two years ago after being mistaken for a suicide bomber.

Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times by specialist firearms officers who followed him into the South London station on July 22, 20005. He was mistaken for Hussain Osman, one of four men who had tried unsuccessfully to launch a suicide attack on London's transport system the day before.

Prosecutors at the Old Bailey set out 19 alleged failings in the police operation in the hours leading up to the shooting – amounting to a breach of duty towards the public under health and safety laws.

But in a rare procedure, an Old Bailey jury attached a rider to their verdict, declaring that the officer who was in charge of the operation, Cressida Dick, should not be held personally responsible for its failure. The foreman told the court: "In reaching this verdict the jury attaches no personal culpability to Commander Dick."

The Met was fined £175,000 and ordered to pay £385,000 costs. The judge, Mr Justice Henriques, made it clear that it was only because the Met was a public body that it escaped a higher fine, which could have hit frontline policing.

Mr Justice Henriques said that the killing had been "an isolated breach brought about by quite extraordinary set of circumstances" and concurred with the jury with their caveat exonerating Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dick.

But the verdict cast doubt on Sir Ian's future as Britain's top policeman. David Davies, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that the Commissioner's position was now "untenable" and the Liberal Democrats immediately called for his resignation after today's verdict.

Sir Ian, whose office was effectively on trial during the case, had said before it started that he feared a guilty verdict would have a "profound" impact on policing throughout the UK. The Scotland Yard chief, who had come under fire over the fact that he was not promptly told that an innocent man had been shot, was at the Old Bailey this afternoon to hear the verdict.

Ronald Thwaites, QC, representing the Met, had told the jury that Mr de Menezes was acting in an "aggressive and threatening manner" when challenged by officers. But campaigners reacted angrily to the way police defended the case, accusing them of a "sickening" attempt to blacken Mr de Menezes’s name.

There was also a bitter courtroom battle over prosecution claims that a composite image of the Brazilian victim and Osman, produced by the defence, had been doctored to make them look more alike.

The trial and investigation is estimated to have cost around £3.5 million in public money. But it was nearly derailed after an armed police raid on the home of a juror’s ex-boyfriend in the second week of the case, in which the female juror’s baby was taken away.

During the trial, prosecutors claimed that "fundamental failures" at all levels led to the death of Mr de Menezes. Police were unsure if he was in fact Osman but still allowed him unchallenged onto two buses and a Tube train.

Surveillance officers who were following him asked their Scotland Yard control room more than once if they should arrest him but were told to wait for the arrival of SO19 firearms officers.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dick, who has since been promoted, denied claims that she missed the "one safe opportunity" to stop him and that she lost control of the operation.

She said that she was told five times that the man police were following was Osman. Mr de Menezes was followed from a block of flats at Scotia Road, Tulse Hill, South London, that was linked to Osman.

The surveillance operation at the block was launched at 4.55am but SO19 officers had still not arrived four hours later when Mr de Menezes, an electrician, left on his way to work. An officer who was meant to identify him as he came out of the communal doors was unable to do so as he was "relieving himself", the court heard.

It was also alleged that there was a "noisy and chaotic" atmosphere in the 16th floor control room which "cannot have helped" the decision-making process. Surveillance and firearms officers whose identities are protected and who the court was told "live in the shadows" gave evidence to the trial under assumed names and behind screens.

One of them, firearms team leader Ralph, broke down in court as he defended the actions of his men, who ran down into the station after the man they believed was a suicide bomber.

"Despite the outcome, I was very proud of them," he said.

Ralph, who was in charge of the SO19 "black team", said he was told over the radio that the man being pursued was "our man" and was acting "nervous and twitchy". The court heard that the firearms officers were issued with highly deadly "dumdum" bullets and told that they might have to use "new and unusual tactics" and "might have to shoot someone point blank in the head".

However, the "Kratos" command for dealing with suspected suicide bombers by shooting them dead without warning was never issued, the Old Bailey was told.

A surveillance officer, known as Ivor, told how he followed Mr de Menezes into the Tube carriage, grabbing him and pinning him to his seat when he realised firearms officers were there, and shouting: "Here he is."

The innocent Brazilian was then shot five times in the head, once in the neck and once in the shoulder, by two SO19 officers. Jurors saw CCTV footage of the marksmen, codenamed C2 and C12, heading down the escalator into the station, but they did not give evidence.

The court was also shown pictures of Mr de Menezes after the shooting, lying dead on the floor of the Tube carriage.

Mr Justice Henriques had told the jury that the police were not "above the law". But Mr Thwaites said a conviction would have the effect of "putting handcuffs on the police".

He said the prosecution should never have been brought and that Mr de Menezes was acting like a suicide bomber when he was shot.

The jury also heard evidence that Mr de Menezes had taken cocaine and had a forged stamp in his passport. Mr Thwaites even accused the judge of bias, claiming his summing up had been "entirely pro-prosecution, unbalanced and totally lacking in objectivity".

Meanwhile Ms Dick, gold commander of the Scotland Yard operation on the day, who spent four days giving evidence, said she was outraged at the perceived questioning of her integrity by the prosecution. She is one of four senior officers still facing possible disciplinary charges over the shooting.

BBC : Police guilty over Menezes case

Police guilty over Menezes case

November 1, 2007

London's police force has been found guilty of endangering the public over the shooting dead of a man officers mistook for a suicide bomber.

The Metropolitan Police broke health and safety laws when they pursued Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes on 22 July 2005, a jury decided.

The Met's commissioner Sir Ian Blair said he would not be standing down.

The Old Bailey jury said police chief Cressida Dick, who led the operation, bore "no personal culpability".

The force has been fined £175,000 and ordered to pay £385,000 in costs.

The unprecedented, highly controversial trial came after prosecutors said that no individual officer could be held responsible for the electrician's death at Stockwell Underground station.

Instead, they said the force, represented by the Met Commissioner's Office, should be tried for failing to protect the public from the risks posed by a suspected suicide bomber on the loose.

The Met vehemently denied the allegation during the trial, saying that there was no case for it to answer.

'Tragic death'

In a statement, Len Duvall, chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), said policing in London was "a tough business".

"We ask the police to do a difficult job on our behalf and sometimes they make mistakes," Mr Duvall said.

"This case led to the tragic death of an innocent man. Our ultimate aim is to make sure we all learn from this tragedy."

The MPA said it fully supported Sir Ian and would continue to work with him.

But the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have called for the commissioner to resign.

Nick Clegg, Lib Dem home affairs spokesman, said: "This guilty verdict makes it unavoidable that Ian Blair should take responsibility on behalf of his whole organisation and resign."

'Isolated breach'

During the trial, Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting, told the jury that Scotland Yard commanders had made a string of errors on 22 July that culminated in an unwarranted risk to the public and ultimately the death of Mr de Menezes.

Sir Ian had warned before the trial began that a guilty verdict would have profound effects on policing.

He said officers would be left in a difficult position of not being able to use their judgement in emergency situations, out of fear of breaking the law.

After the verdict was delivered, Mr Justice Henriques said: "This was very much an isolated breach brought about by quite extraordinary circumstances.

"One person died and many others were placed in potential danger."

In deciding on a penalty, the judge said he was aware that a heavy fine would result in a loss to the public purse and a reduction in essential policing.

Failures

The operation began when detectives investigating the failed suicide bombings of the day before - 21 July - linked one of the suspects, Hussain Osman, to a block of flats in south London.

Mr de Menezes also lived in the block, and when he left home at 0930 BST, surveillance officers were unsure if he was their target.

Ms Montgomery told the court the situation had worsened because senior officers failed to keep to their own agreed plan, while firearms teams were both poorly briefed and in the wrong locations.

This meant that it became impossible to effectively stop the suspected suicide bomber before he boarded a bus and headed for the Underground.

The Met denied this, saying its commanders and officers on the ground did all they could to apprehend the bombers and minimise the risks to the public.

The trial and investigation is estimated to have cost around £3.5 million in public money.

Guardian : De Menezes: the key questions

De Menezes: the key questions

The Guardian's crime correspondent on the key questions that remain over the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes

Vikram Dodd, crime correspondent | Guardian Unlimited | November 1, 2007

On the morning of July 22 2005, Scotland Yard was hunting for four people who had attempted to bomb London's transport system on the previous afternoon.

The devices failed to go off, and police were in a race against time to catch the would-be bombers before they struck again.

The Metropolitan police force was under the most pressure it had faced in living memory. The attempted July 21 attacks came only a fortnight after suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured 750 in attacks on three tube trains and a bus, and had left the nation on edge.

The trial over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, which ended yesterday, presented new facts about why police had mistaken the innocent white Brazilian for a terrorist of East African origin.

More than two years after the shooting, many key questions remain unanswered or in dispute.

Why did police follow De Menezes?

In the middle of the night, police made a breakthrough. One of the failed July 21 devices, recovered from Shepherd's Bush underground, was in a bag containing a gym membership card belonging to one of the would-be bombers, Hussain Osman. Police linked him to an address at 21 Scotia Road, in Tulse Hill, south London.

The breakthrough came just after 4.30am. By 5.05am, Commander John McDowell had ordered surveillance teams to the address.

The plan

The surveillance teams were to be backed up by elite firearms officers from a unit called SO19.

The aim was to stop and detain anyone emerging from the premises, and to rule them out or in as being Osman. They would be stopped a safe distance from the flats to avoiding alerting any terrorists that could still be inside the building.

The surveillance officers were from Special Branch, and some were armed for their own protection. They lacked the training to enact a stop of a suspected, determined suicide bomber.

The first problem the surveillance team faced was that the suspect's address was in a block of eight flats, and people were exiting through a shared door. The first surveillance team was outside the flats by 6am, and a second was in place by 8.33am.

The Met had several large operations under way that morning, but the surveillance of the suspect address at 21 Scotia Road was one of the most important.

It was run from a special control room several miles from the address, based in room 1600 at New Scotland Yard. In charge was Cressida Dick, then a commander, who had vast experience in firearms operations.

Was De Menezes ever identified as the terrorist?

At 9.33am, De Menezes exited through the communal door. There was no way for officers to tell from which flat he had come, ahd he had in fact left flat 17 - not the suspect address.

One surveillance officer, seconded from the SAS, was relieving himself as De Menezes left. Codenamed Frank, he radioed in to the control room at Scotland Yard. He said he could not tell whether the person was Osman, but correctly identified him as white and not carrying anything. He said: "It might be worth somebody else having a look."

The final journey made by De Menezes saw him walk for a few minutes and catch a number two bus to Brixton tube station. Surveillance officers were following him and, at 9.36, an officer known as Edward thought the suspect looked "North African".

De Menezes found Brixton station was closed. He then doubled back on himself, taking a bus to Stockwell. This innocent action was interpreted by some officers as a tactic to try to shake off surveillance.

According to Ms Dick's evidence, the first reports from the team on the ground were that the man being followed was not Osman, whom police had codenamed Nettletip. That later changed, and Ms Dick said she was told five times that the team thought the suspect was Osman, with the confidence in the identification growing stronger.

Ms Dick explained the factors behind her eventual order that the subject be stopped. The first was the surveillance team's repeated belief that the man was the terror suspect they were hunting.

"Secondly, from the behaviour described to me - nervousness, agitation, sending text messages, [using] the telephone, getting on and off the bus, all added to the picture of someone potentially intent on causing an explosion," she added.

Was the plan followed?

Commander McDowell's plan, drawn up at 5am, stated that firearms officers from SO19 should be present to stop people emerging from the Tulse Hill premises - but they took more than four hours to be assembled and briefed and to then get into the area.

One special branch officer told the jury the delay was "unacceptable", and meant De Menezes could not be stopped as the plan stated.

The crown's case was that because SO19 had taken so long, the public had been put at unnecessary risk. If De Menezes had been a suicide bomber, the delay meant he had been able to ride two buses and get on a tube train.

Furthermore, according to the evidence of one surveillance officer, six people emerged from the block of flats before De Menezes. They were not stopped.

In court, the police said the plan Commander McDowell had laid down was "finessed" once it was realised that there was a communal entrance to the flats.

The order

Ms Dick insisted that she never gave an order for the man police were following that morning to be shot. She wanted him stopped before entering the tube system.

Furthermore, a special shoot to kill tactic, called Operation Kratos, was not ordered that morning. Kratos was developed by police to tackle suicide bombers, and meant officers could shoot dead a terrorist about to detonate a device without shouting a warning.

It had been thought the Stockwell shooting was carried out under the terms of Kratos, but the trial revealed it was not.

The crown said the orders from the control room showed the chaos. At 10.03am, the room was told the subject was off the bus and was heading for the underground. One minute later, Commander Dick ordered he be stopped before entering the station - but with CO19 still not on the scene, she then ordered that the surveillance team tackle him despite their being inadequately trained.

That order stood for seconds, and she countermanded it after a senior colleague told her CO19 were now at the station and would make the stop. The firearms team went to "state red", meaning they would intervene and arrest the suspect.

In the control room, they expected the man to be stopped outside the tube station. But by now, it was too late. De Menezes, followed by surveillance officers, was going down the station's escalators. They saw him pick up a free newspaper and calmly put his ticket through the barriers.

After getting on the train, the Brazilian was surrounded by undercover officers posing as commuters. The train did not move, staying in the station because a surveillance officer was jamming the carriage door with his foot.

As the train waited, the SO19 team hurtled down the escalators and reached the carriage. They were not undercover, but were wearing caps to identify them as police officers. One had a long-barrelled weapon visible. If De Menezes had been a suicide bomber, he would have had ample time and warning to detonate his device, the crown said.

Why did the police open fire?

Firearms officers said they had been briefed that morning that they could face a determined suicide bomber and might have to use lethal force.

The firearms officers entered the carriage having heard over police radios that the man their colleagues had been following was the suspect in an attempted suicide bombing the previous day. They entered aware of the command for the man to be stopped.

They went in to the tube carriage, where they were recognised by surveillance officers who at first quietly pointed in the direction of De Menezes. One said: "He's here," and pointed again.

What happened next is still disputed by the Brazilian's family. Police claim officers shouted a verbal challenge, at which point De Menezes stood up, but an official investigation could find no independent witness on the train who heard the police shout any warning or to back up the substance of their account.

After De Menezes stood up, a surveillance officer called Ivor told the jury he had "instinctively" grabbed him. He said De Menezes's arms moved downwards, heading towards his midriff - an action interpretable as a motion of trying to detonate a device.

"I grabbed Mr Menezes, wrapping both my arms around the torso, pinning his arms against his side, pushing him back to the seat with the right hand side of my head against the right hand side of his torso, pinning him to the seat," Ivor told the court.

"After a few moments, I felt his head turn towards me. I was aware of a CO19 officer kneeling on the seat to my left. I heard a gunshot very close to my left ear, and was hit by a shockwave of a gun being discharged." In all, seven shots were fired, five hitting the back of De Menezes's head.

In the chaos, running towards a man they say they believed was about to detonate a bomb, the firearms officers thought even Ivor was a suspect and dragged him to the floor.

Ivor found himself facing his own colleagues' guns, and told the jury: "I was aware that the long-barrelled weapon was levelled at my chest, and the barrel of a gun was at my head." The officer said he was then wrenched out of the carriage. His arms were still in the air, and he then put his chequered police cap on.

"I could hear several gunshots and shouting and screaming," he said. "The scene was extremely violent, extremely noisy and obviously distressing. Members of the public were emptying the carriage, obviously in distress. There was a lot of gunsmoke."

The train driver was chased down a darkened tunnel by armed officers as commuters fled.

Back in room 1600 at New Scotland Yard, they waited. Police radios did not work underground, meaning that, once officers had entered the station, they could not receive or ask for further instructions.

At 10.08am, the message came from Stockwell: the suspect had been shot.

Ms Dick told the jury that, minutes after that news, she began to fear an innocent man may have been killed. Barely 15 minutes after De Menezes was shot, an explosives expert confirmed he had not been carrying a bomb.

In the tube carriage, splattered with blood, lay the body of De Menezes. On him were identity documents that revealed his name and nationality.

For different reasons, a nightmare had begun for the De Menezes family and for the Metropolitan police. That nightmare still endures.

Guardian : Embattled police chief facing further criticism

Embattled police chief facing further criticism

The Guardian's crime correspondent explains what today's verdict means for the Met

Vikram Dodd, crime correspondent | Guardian Unlimited | November 1, 2007

Sir Ian Blair has, by any account, had an embattled time in his more than two and a half years as commissioner of the Metropolitan police.

Some of his problems have been self-inflicted and some due to bad luck.

Today, Sir Ian was on the receiving end of more bad news from an Old Bailey jury that convicted his force of breaking health and safety laws over the shooting dead of Jean Charles de Menezes.

Inevitably, the verdict will renew calls from his critics for him to resign, although reports at the weekend citing sources close to Sir Ian said he had no intention of stepping down, even if there was a guilty verdict.

Sir Ian decided the force should contest the health and safety charge, despite some senior figures in the Met believing they should plead guilty to avoid even more prolonged and damaging headlines over the De Menezes shooting.

During the trial, the force faced a series of embarrassing revelations about its competency and skills of its senior leadership. It has also been attacked for its tactics.

The closing speech of barrister Ronald Thwaites QC, representing the office of the commissioner, drew anger from De Menezes's family.

Mr Thwaites said the innocent Brazilian was shot because he reacted like a suicide bomber when challenged, and had acted suspiciously on his journey to Stockwell tube station.

Last Friday, Mr Thwaites told the jury: "He was shot because when he was challenged by police he did not comply with them but reacted precisely as they had been briefed a suicide bomber might react at the point of detonating his bomb.

"Furthermore he looked like the suspect and he had behaved suspiciously."

Mr Thwaites used the fact that chemicals associated with cocaine use were found in De Menezes's system to try to argue that the Brazilian may have been jumpy and twitchy.

It was an approach by the barrister the Met had hired that reversed the force's two-year strategy that it would not blame De Menezes.

The Met also decided to try to save itself by putting the officer in charge of the operation on the stand. Cressida Dick gave evidence for three-and-a-half days, one of the longest sessions a senior officer has ever faced.

It was Sir Ian who decided to promote her from the rank of commander to deputy assistant commissioner ahead of the trial. Today's guilty verdict raises questions again about the commissioner's judgment in promoting her. The force will have to fend off questions about whether the verdict meant the jury did not believe Ms Dick's account.

The shooting of De Menezes has also shown a commissioner who is out of touch with events. A report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission found Sir Ian was in the dark about his force's blunder despite other senior officers fearing within hours of the shooting that an innocent man had been killed.

Sir Ian was also criticised for his attempt on the day of the shooting to block the IPCC investigation, threatening to deny their investigators access to the site, despite the law mandating they investigate.

The commissioner will also be aware that the end of today's trial does not mean the Met will be able to draw a line under the killing. The inquest into De Menezes's death was delayed for this criminal prosecution and is not expected to be held until next year.

Also awaited is the official report into the Met's errors that led to the shooting. That report by the IPCC is known as Stockwell One.

The trial that ended today looked at one narrow aspect from the point of view of health and safety laws. The Stockwell One report takes a wider view and paints a far more embarrassing picture for the Met, according to sources with knowledge of its content. It also contains direct criticism of Sir Ian.

The force will also face a civil claim for damages from the De Menezes family. Interviewed in July 2005 by the Guardian, Sir Ian said the job as commissioner required "copper-bottomed trousers". That is one judgment from Sir Ian that nobody can argue with.

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.

Guardian : We did our best, says De Menezes officer

We did our best, says De Menezes officer

Fred Attewill and agencies | Guardian Unlimited | October 3, 2007

The Scotland Yard commander in charge of the operation in which Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead said today he still thinks almost daily about what could have been done differently.

But John McDowell also said his team had done its best to protect the public under "difficult circumstances". The Metropolitan police is on trial over alleged health and safety failures leading up to De Menezes' death on July 22 2005.

The Brazilian electrician was shot seven times in the head in front of horrified commuters after he was mistaken for a suicide bomber following the failed attacks on London's transport network the previous day. The Met denies the charges.

Today, Mr McDowell told the jury: "I have since that time constantly thought about what other potential tactics or strategy might have been available to me because of the outcome of this tragic set of circumstances.

"I have done that on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

"I remain of the view that I and we did our best that morning to mitigate what was clearly a threat to the public in very difficult circumstances."

The judge, Mr Justice Henriques, asked Mr McDowell if the fact that a firearms team was not briefed until nearly four hours after his instruction was an "acceptable passage of time".

Mr McDowell replied that it was the "quickest time that that team could be assembled and deployed with all the considerations that were bearing upon us that morning".

The judge asked: "Could that have been done differently?"

Mr McDowell said: "With hindsight, it is entirely conceivable it could have been."

Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive, also questioned the delay in getting a firearms team to an address in Scotia Road that had been linked to Hussain Osman, one of the men involved in the failed suicide attacks the day before.

Prosecutors claim that De Menezes and the public were exposed to risk because armed police were not there to challenge him and he was allowed on to two buses and a tube train, where he was shot dead.

Mr McDowell said there was "a feeling that there was a bit of time".

It was believed an attack that day would not come until the rush hour, when there would be a "larger number of people about", he said.

Detective Chief Superintendent Timothy White, who gave authorisation the night before for armed police to be deployed, later told the court it was vital for police to retain "operational flexibility" in deciding when suspects should be detained.

The hearing continues.

Guardian : Series of errors by police led to tube shooting, court told

Series of errors by police led to tube shooting, court told

· Operation invited disaster, prosecution claims
· Two officers 'fired seven shots into suspect's head'

Matthew Taylor | The Guardian | October 2, 2007

A police officer identified Jean Charles de Menezes to armed colleagues shouting "here he is" moments before the 27-year-old electrician was shot seven times in the head in front of horrified commuters, a court heard yesterday.

A trial at the Old Bailey heard that surveillance officers had followed the Brazilian from his house in south London on to the tube train at Stockwell station, believing he was linked to attempted terrorist attacks in the capital the previous day, July 21 2005.

Yesterday Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting, said: "He was grabbed by a surveillance officer and pushed back into his seat. Two firearms officers ... leant over Ivor [the surveillance officer's codename] and placed their Glock 9mm pistols against Jean Charles head and fired. He was shot seven times in the head and died immediately."

Members of the Mr de Menezes's family were in court as the jury were shown pictures of his body in the tube train in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

The Metropolitan police is on trial over alleged health and safety failures leading up to Mr Menezes's death; it denies the charges.

Yesterday the police operation leading up to the shooting was described as fundamentally flawed and so chaotic that it "invited disaster".

Ms Montgomery said Mr de Menezes's shooting was a "shocking and catastrophic error" which followed a series of errors by police at all levels. "We say that the police planned and carried out an operation that day so badly that the public were needlessly put at risk and Jean Charles de Menezes was actually killed as a result."

She added: "The disaster was not the result of a fast-moving operation going suddenly and unpredictably awry. It was the result of fundamental failures to carry out a planned operation in a safe and reasonable way."

Yesterday the court heard that senior officers in control room 1600 at New Scotland Yard were in a state of chaos in the hours leading up to Mr de Menezes's death. "You will hear about the atmosphere in the overcrowded room as officers from other departments - many of whom had no real business being there - crowded into the room to see what was going on. The operations room was noisy and chaotic," said Ms Montgomery.

She said the officer who was supposed to monitor the surveillance commentary had "great difficulty in hearing the radio transmissions of the surveillance officers. There were repeated requests for non-essential staff to leave the room".

Two surveillance teams had been posted to Mr de Menezes's flat in south London after the address was linked to Hussain Osman, one of the July 21 attempted bombers, following the discovery of a gym card. Just after 9.30am Mr de Menezes left and was followed as he boarded a bus on the way to work. But the court heard that senior officers in the control room repeatedly misunderstood the information they were receiving from officers on the ground. At one point they believed the surveillance teams had said Mr de Menezes was definitely not a suspected terrorist. A few minutes later they thought he had been positively identified as a terrorist.

"Neither of these extreme views were justified on what the surveillance team were seeing and transmitting," said Ms Montgomery. "There is no doubt the control room were looking for certainty - they did not appear to have a strategy to cope when this certainty was absent."

Surveillance officers asked their superiors more than once if they should arrest Mr de Menezes during the journey but were told to wait.

Earlier, Ms Montgomery said that although an order was given for firearms officers to take up position outside Mr de Menezes's flat alongside the surveillance teams, they had failed to arrive four hours later when the Brazilian left for work.

"Inexplicably by the time Jean Charles emerged from his flat just after 9.30am that morning no one had even completed that assessment let alone got round to placing specialist firearms officers in the area. That is over four hours after the strategy was set ... four hours when there was nothing that could be done to stop a suicide bomber coming out of Scotia Road other than to expect the surveillance officers who were there to do there best."

Ms Montgomery added: "Jean Charles, who within minutes of his emergence the police believed might be a suicide bomber, was allowed to walk to a bus stop, get on a bus, get off the bus, get on again, and finally enter Stockwell tube station.

"If he had been a suicide bomber emerging with a backpack and a murderous intent, no one had any established plan that could have dealt with him because the firearms officers had not arrived."

The case continues.

Reuters : London police start trial over Brazilian's shooting

London police start trial over Brazilian's shooting

By Michael Holden | September 30, 2007

LONDON (Reuters) - London's police force goes on trial on Monday accused of breaking health and safety laws over the killing of an innocent Brazilian man, shot in the head seven times by officers who mistook him for a suicide bomber.

Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was gunned down as he boarded an underground train in south London on July 22, 2005 by officers who had wrongly identified him as one of four men who tried to attack the London transport system the day before.

The botched suicide bombings, just two weeks after four young British Islamists killed themselves and 52 people on three underground trains and a bus in the capital's worst peacetime attack, sparked a frantic manhunt by British police.

Prosecutors brought the rare corporate case against London's Metropolitan Police Service after deciding last year there was insufficient evidence to charge individual officers involved in the operation, to the fury of de Menezes's family.

Police are accused under health and safety laws of failing to conduct "the planning and the implementation of the surveillance, pursuit, arrest and detention of a suspected suicide bomber" in a way that ensured the public and de Menezes "were not exposed to risks".

De Menezes, an electrician, happened to live in the same block of flats as Hussein Osman, one of four men jailed earlier this year for plotting the unsuccessful July 21 attacks.

When he left for work on July 22, undercover officers followed him onto two buses and then to Stockwell station, where he calmly headed to the platform before running to catch a train which had just pulled in.

Armed police who had been sent to intercept him got on board, pushed him to the floor of the carriage, and shot him seven times in the head and once in the shoulder.

A report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission watchdog said de Menezes had done nothing to arouse suspicion. Police later apologised and said they had made a mistake, citing the unprecedented pressures they were facing at the time.

In August, an IPCC probe ruled that Britain's top counter-terrorism officer, Andy Hayman, had misled colleagues and the public on the afternoon of the shooting by not telling them the dead man was innocent. That information was only made public 24 hours afterwards.

London police commissioner, Ian Blair, who bore the brunt of criticism, was cleared of lying.

The trial is due to last six weeks and if found guilty the police force, which said such a verdict would severely hamper its counter-terrorism work, faces a large fine.

© Reuters 2007 All rights reserved

BBC : Ceremony to mark de Menezes death

Ceremony to mark de Menezes death

Sunday, July 22, 2007

The second anniversary of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes is to be marked by a ceremony on Sunday.

The Brazilian was shot dead at Stockwell Tube station on 22 July 2005 by police who had mistakenly identified him as a suicide bomber.

Relatives of Mr de Menezes, along with friends and campaigners, will gather at the station at 1000 BST (0900 GMT).

They will hold a one-minute silence and lay flowers close to a makeshift shrine to the 27-year-old electrician.

On Friday night an image of the Brazilian - accompanied by the words "Two Years, No Justice" - was beamed on to the side of the Houses of Parliament.

The image projection took place as a protest against the decision not to bring criminal charges over Mr de Menezes' death.

Inquest delay

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided no individual should be prosecuted, although the Metropolitan Police is facing trial under health and safety legislation in October, a process which could take up to eight weeks.

An inquest into Mr de Menezes' death has been put on hold until the legal action is concluded.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has not yet revealed whether any senior officers are to face disciplinary punishment.

A spokeswoman for the Jean Charles de Menezes Family Campaign said Parliament should make sure the police were held to account for what had happened.

"We call on Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to meet with us to explain the lack of any credible investigation into Jean's death," she said.

"It is her responsibility to guarantee public faith in the judicial process."

Mr de Menezes' family is to also hold a public meeting on Monday in central London to give further details of their campaign work.