'Cocaine found in De Menezes' urine'

Traces of cocaine were found in Jean Charles de Menezes after he was shot dead by firearms officers, a court heard today.

Pathologist Dr Kenneth Shorrock told the Old Bailey that tests showed he must have taken the drug.

A by-product of cocaine was also found in the bloodstream of the 27-year-old Brazilian, who was gunned down at Stockwell Tube station on July 22 2005.

Dr Shorrock was giving evidence at the trial of the Metropolitan Police, which is accused of a “catastrophic” series of errors leading to the death of Mr de Menezes, who was mistaken for a suicide bomber.

It denies a single charge under health and safety laws.

Today the court heard that a toxicology test following his death showed a blood test for cocaine was “below detectable levels” but his urine tested positive.

Ronald Thwaites QC, defending, asked Dr Shorrock: “Does that indicate that he had relatively recently consumer cocaine?”

Dr Shorrock replied: “I can’t speak with any expertise about when he would have consumed it, but that plus the presence of benzoylecognine, a breakdown product of cocaine, indicates that he had used cocaine at some time.”

Dr Shorrock told the jury he attended Stockwell Tube station following the shooting and conducted a post mortem examination the following day.

The court was shown video footage taken shortly afterwards of Mr de Menezes’s body lying slumped along the middle of the Tube train where he was shot.

Dr Shorrock said he gave the cause of death as gunshot wounds. There were seven in total – five to the head, one to the right shoulder and one to the neck.

He said the toxicology report showed that as well as cocaine in the urine, 0.44 milligrams of benzoylecognine per ml were found in the blood.

Ronald Thwaites QC, defending, asked if cocaine had the potential to cause “abnormal or unusual behaviour”.

Dr Shorrock said: “It is a euphoric drug. It is a drug that lifts your mind, it is a stimulant drug.

“It can make you do things that to somebody who hadn’t used the drug might seem inappropriate and it can make people behave aggressively.”

But the pathologist added that the effects would not necessarily be the same for every individual.

He agreed when Mr Thwaites suggested it could cause “distortion of thought processes” and when its effects wear off it can produce anxiety which could manifest itself as paranoia.

“You are abnormally fearful, abnormally apprehensive and abnormally suspicious,” Dr Shorrock said.

But, questioned by Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting, he said that if cocaine were in “active stimulant mode” you would expect to find it in the bloodstream, which it was not in Mr de Menezes.

Earlier a firearms officer codenamed Terry told the court he had been one of those who ran down to the Tube train after Mr de Menezes, behind ``Charlie Two'', one of the two armed policemen who shot him.

He said: “The doors opened and a surveillance officer was standing in the open doorway. He had his hand on his chest indicating towards my right.

“The carriage was reasonably busy. I followed Charlie Two who was a short distance ahead of me, passing the first set of doors and then straight in through the second set.

“As I went into the carriage I was aware of a struggle taking place. I came up behind Charlie Two and knew that other officers were in and around the carriage.

“I could hear verbal challenges being issued of ’police’ and ’armed police’, and familiar voices shouting instructions to the passengers on that car to get off.

“I was issuing the same verbal challenges of ’armed police’.

“I heard cracking noises right in front of me but I didn’t see exactly what that was. The struggle continued and I clearly formed the opinion that shots had been fired but at that point of time was unsure as to who it was that fired the shots.

“There was a momentary pause and the shots resumed.”

Terry said that as he moved to get a better view of what was happening he saw “debris” in the air, but was not sure what it was.

“I was moving to get a clearer view on what was happening and I also considered getting myself into position where I could bring my weapon into the ready position,” he said.

There was then “lots and lots of movement” in the carriage and instructions being shouted, Terry added.

“After I had seen the suspect face down over the carriage seat I was very concerned about the possibility that he might have been wearing a concealed explosive device.”

He said this led him to try to make sure all the passengers got off the train.

“I did that by shouting at people and directing people off,” Terry said. “I was also shouting at the top of my voice for my colleagues to back off.”

He said he then helped explosives officers who examined the body and found that there were no explosives.