Thursday 2 August 2007

Met chief was misled over De Menezes shooting, report finds

Talk about nothing more than a slapped wrist. As usual we will never really know what happened. I feel sorry for Jean Charles' family who are still in the dark about what happened and with the arrogance of our system they will probably never know. All we know is that a completely innocent person was shot in the head 7 times while trying to go to work. I have my own theories about this and I still believe that this shooting was somehow connected to the 7/7 London bombings. I don't know why, it's just a feeling. Read some of the other articles on the site about this case by clicking the topic link below.

Britain's most senior counter-terrorism police officer "deliberately" misled his own commissioner about the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, an official report has found.

The report by the Independent Police Complaint's Commission will be released at midday today. The Guardian has obtained the full 134-page report, which makes swingeing criticism of the Metropolitan police.

The report says it has "serious concern" over the conduct of assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, and says complaints against him are upheld.

Mr de Menezes, a Brazilian, was shot dead at 10am on July 22 2005 after officers mistook him for a terrorist. The shooting came a day after failed suicide bomb attacks on London's transport system.

The IPCC finds that complaints against Mr Hayman, still in charge of counter terrorism, are substantiated, and gives a clear signal it believes he should face disciplinary action. The Metropolitan Police Authority will now decide what action to take.

Complaints against the commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, are not upheld, but the IPCC finds he was not told about a large amount of evidence suggesting the wrong man had been shot, and did not know until the next day.

Mr Hayman told IPCC investigators he could not remember what he told the Crime Reporters Association on the afternoon of July 22 about the shooting.

The IPCC report disagrees. "There is compelling corroboration that AC Hayman categorically stated at the CRA briefing that the deceased was not one of the four wanted men," it says.

Full story...