Rokhan
10-01-2007, 05:12 PM
A police officer identified Jean Charles de Menezes to armed colleagues by saying "here he is", before the innocent Brazilian was shot seven times in the head.
Mr de Menezes was gunned down at Stockwell Tube station after being mistaken for a suicide bomber, the Old Bailey heard.
Now the Metropolitan Police are on trial for alleged health and safety failures which it is claimed "invited disaster". It denies the allegations.
Mr de Menezes was killed following a surveillance operation at his address at Scotia Road, south London, which the police had linked to July 21 attempted bomber Hussain Osman.
But despite the surveillance being launched more than four hours earlier, a firearms team had yet to arrive at the address by the time Mr de Menezes left his home for work at 9.33am, said Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting.
In fact they were two miles away having stopped for petrol on the way.
He was followed by surveillance officers on two buses and then down into Stockwell Tube station where CCTV pictures played to the jury showed him being followed by surveillance officers.
The officers asked their superiors more than once if they should arrest Mr de Menezes but were told to wait, Miss Montgomery said.
They did not know that the order had been given to "stop" him boarding the Tube.
CCTV images showed armed officers, who did not know whether Mr de Menezes was the suspect, brandishing their weapons as they made their way down to the platform.
As they boarded the Tube carriage, they were recognised by surveillance officers as armed colleagues.
One of them pointed out Jean Charles by saying: "Here he is."
"As the armed police entered the carriage, Jean Charles stood up," said Miss Montgomery.
"He was grabbed by a surveillance officer and pushed back into his seat. Two firearms officers leant over him and placed their Glock 9mm pistols against Jean Charles' head and fired.
"He was shot seven times in the head and died immediately."
The public were put at risk by the fact that police had allowed a suspected suicide bomber on to a packed bus and then a busy Tube train, Miss Montgomery said.
If he had been a suicide bomber, he "may well have been aware of a police interest in him" after a police car drove up to one of the buses he was on with its lights on, and later in the Tube, when the approach of armed officers was "obvious".
"If Jean Charles had been a bomber, any bomb he was carrying would have been detonated well before the firearms officers entered his carriage.
"The fact is that London, and in particular the occupants of that Tube carriage, were lucky Jean Charles was not a bomber," she said.
Picture of Charles de Menezes
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20071001/img/puk-1191255468-uk-bbd4e79ac-b03e40d760460.html
The shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by armed police was caused by "fundamental failures" in planning, a court heard.
An Old Bailey jury heard how the 27-year-old, who had been mistaken for a suicide bomber, was gunned down by two police officers as he boarded a Tube train at Stockwell station in south London.
Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting, said the "disaster" of the innocent Brazilian electrician's death 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," she said.
The Metropolitan Police are on trial over alleged health and safety failures leading up to his death on July 22, 2005, which they deny.
Named in the indictment is the Office of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, accused of failure to discharge a duty under section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
It is alleged that the Met failed to conduct this operation in such a way that "members of the public including Mr Menezes were not exposed to risks to their health and safety".
The charge, denied by the force, focuses on the "investigation and surveillance of a location believed to be connected with a suspected suicide bomber, and the planning and the implementation of the surveillance, pursuit, arrest and detention of a suspected suicide bomber, and the prevention of a suicide bombing".
Miss Montgomery urged jurors to put out of their minds anything they might have heard about the case or any sympathy they might have with Mr de Menezes or for the police.
"Nobody takes any pleasure in the death of this young man and equally no one can take any pleasure at a trial of the Commissioner at the Old Bailey," she said.
"But the law treats all employers equally and no one, not even the police, are above it."
Miss Montgomery also revealed that some witnesses, because of the "sensitive nature" of the work they do, are being allowed to give evidence under an assumed name and screened from the public view.
Jurors will be shown CCTV recordings and a reconstruction of Mr Menezes's journey, as well as police logs made by officers.
But they were told the evidence gives an "incomplete and partial picture" and there are "inconsistencies" in the records and timings.
Miss Montgomery said: "The shooting of Jean Charles was a shocking and catastrophic error.
"His death could have been avoided if the defendant had fulfilled the duty owed to all members of the public to avoid exposing them to unnecessary risks to their health and safety.
"The prosecution say that the duty was breached in a number of ways."
There were "mistakes and failures by a number of different officers" and while jurors would have to judge their individual guilt or innocence, they would need to consider whether, if each of them had done their duty, Mr de Menezes would still be alive.
The trial is expected to last six weeks.
Mr de Menezes was gunned down at Stockwell Tube station after being mistaken for a suicide bomber, the Old Bailey heard.
Now the Metropolitan Police are on trial for alleged health and safety failures which it is claimed "invited disaster". It denies the allegations.
Mr de Menezes was killed following a surveillance operation at his address at Scotia Road, south London, which the police had linked to July 21 attempted bomber Hussain Osman.
But despite the surveillance being launched more than four hours earlier, a firearms team had yet to arrive at the address by the time Mr de Menezes left his home for work at 9.33am, said Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting.
In fact they were two miles away having stopped for petrol on the way.
He was followed by surveillance officers on two buses and then down into Stockwell Tube station where CCTV pictures played to the jury showed him being followed by surveillance officers.
The officers asked their superiors more than once if they should arrest Mr de Menezes but were told to wait, Miss Montgomery said.
They did not know that the order had been given to "stop" him boarding the Tube.
CCTV images showed armed officers, who did not know whether Mr de Menezes was the suspect, brandishing their weapons as they made their way down to the platform.
As they boarded the Tube carriage, they were recognised by surveillance officers as armed colleagues.
One of them pointed out Jean Charles by saying: "Here he is."
"As the armed police entered the carriage, Jean Charles stood up," said Miss Montgomery.
"He was grabbed by a surveillance officer and pushed back into his seat. Two firearms officers leant over him and placed their Glock 9mm pistols against Jean Charles' head and fired.
"He was shot seven times in the head and died immediately."
The public were put at risk by the fact that police had allowed a suspected suicide bomber on to a packed bus and then a busy Tube train, Miss Montgomery said.
If he had been a suicide bomber, he "may well have been aware of a police interest in him" after a police car drove up to one of the buses he was on with its lights on, and later in the Tube, when the approach of armed officers was "obvious".
"If Jean Charles had been a bomber, any bomb he was carrying would have been detonated well before the firearms officers entered his carriage.
"The fact is that London, and in particular the occupants of that Tube carriage, were lucky Jean Charles was not a bomber," she said.
Picture of Charles de Menezes
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20071001/img/puk-1191255468-uk-bbd4e79ac-b03e40d760460.html
The shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by armed police was caused by "fundamental failures" in planning, a court heard.
An Old Bailey jury heard how the 27-year-old, who had been mistaken for a suicide bomber, was gunned down by two police officers as he boarded a Tube train at Stockwell station in south London.
Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting, said the "disaster" of the innocent Brazilian electrician's death 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," she said.
The Metropolitan Police are on trial over alleged health and safety failures leading up to his death on July 22, 2005, which they deny.
Named in the indictment is the Office of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, accused of failure to discharge a duty under section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
It is alleged that the Met failed to conduct this operation in such a way that "members of the public including Mr Menezes were not exposed to risks to their health and safety".
The charge, denied by the force, focuses on the "investigation and surveillance of a location believed to be connected with a suspected suicide bomber, and the planning and the implementation of the surveillance, pursuit, arrest and detention of a suspected suicide bomber, and the prevention of a suicide bombing".
Miss Montgomery urged jurors to put out of their minds anything they might have heard about the case or any sympathy they might have with Mr de Menezes or for the police.
"Nobody takes any pleasure in the death of this young man and equally no one can take any pleasure at a trial of the Commissioner at the Old Bailey," she said.
"But the law treats all employers equally and no one, not even the police, are above it."
Miss Montgomery also revealed that some witnesses, because of the "sensitive nature" of the work they do, are being allowed to give evidence under an assumed name and screened from the public view.
Jurors will be shown CCTV recordings and a reconstruction of Mr Menezes's journey, as well as police logs made by officers.
But they were told the evidence gives an "incomplete and partial picture" and there are "inconsistencies" in the records and timings.
Miss Montgomery said: "The shooting of Jean Charles was a shocking and catastrophic error.
"His death could have been avoided if the defendant had fulfilled the duty owed to all members of the public to avoid exposing them to unnecessary risks to their health and safety.
"The prosecution say that the duty was breached in a number of ways."
There were "mistakes and failures by a number of different officers" and while jurors would have to judge their individual guilt or innocence, they would need to consider whether, if each of them had done their duty, Mr de Menezes would still be alive.
The trial is expected to last six weeks.