The London Metropolitan Police (Met) was found guilty of a "catastrophic" series of errors on Thursday that led to the shooting dead of an innocent man in a London underground station.
This is an undated Metropolitan Police handout photo of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes. The Metropolitan Police was found guilty on Thursday of a "catastrophic" series of errors that led to the killing of a Brazilian man in a south London Tube station. (AFP File Photo)
Brazilian electrician Jean Charles De Menezes was shot seven times by London specialist officers at Stockwell Underground Station after being mistaken for a failed suicide bomber on July 22, 2005.
Friends of Jean Charles de Menezes put flowers around his shrine outside Stockwell station in 2006. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
The Met had broken Health and Safety legislation when police officers pursued De Menezes to a underground station and shot him, a jury at the Old Bailey court found. The Met Police was fined 175,000 pounds with 385,000 pound costs over the shooting.
Prosecutors at the Old Bailey set out 19 alleged failings in the police operation in the shooting. Cressida Dick, now deputy assistant commissioner of the Met, had been accused by prosecutors of failing to keep control of her officers.
But the jury said police chief Cressida Dick, who led the operation, bore "no personal culpability."
Met Police Commissioner Ian Blair said outside court that he was staying in his job -- despite calls for his resignation.
Ian Blair, Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, addresses the media outside the Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey, in London November 1, 2007. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Asad Rehman, the De Menezes family campaign spokesman, said Blair should stand down.
(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2007)
