'Whitewash' attack as jury reaches Menezes verdict

The family of Jean Charles de Menezes branded his inquest a “whitewash” today as a jury rejected police claims that the Brazilian was lawfully killed.

The 10 jurors returned an open verdict after listening to more than seven weeks of evidence at the inquest into the 27-year-old’s death.

Police marksmen shot Mr de Menezes seven times at Stockwell Tube station in south London on July 22, 2005, after mistaking him for failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman.

The jury rejected a firearms officer’s claim that he shouted “armed police” before opening fire at Mr de Menezes.

But jurors accepted police claims that Mr de Menezes stood up in the carriage before he was grabbed in a bear-hug before the shooting.

As the jury returned its verdict, Mr de Menezes’s family accused Sir Michael Wright, the coroner, of “presiding over a complete whitewash”.

In a stinging attack on the former High Court judge, they said he “failed on every count” during proceedings.

The jury also rejected a firearms officer's claim that he shouted "armed police" before opening fire at Mr de Menezes.

The Brazilian’s family reacted angrily to Sir Michael’s ruling that the jury could not return a verdict of unlawful killing.

A family statement, released through the Justice4Jean campaign group, said: “After three months of evidence, 100 witnesses and millions of pounds, the coroner, Sir Michael Wright, has presided over a complete whitewash.

“He has failed on every count of the purpose of an inquest investigation.”

In a new interview, his mother Maria Otone de Menezes said: “Justice has not been done yet.”

She also spoke of her belief that some officers lied to the inquest and called for the resignation of Cressida Dick, the senior policewoman who led the operation that ended in her son’s death.

It can be revealed now that the family withdrew their legal team after losing a High Court battle to change elements of the terms of the verdicts available to the jury.

An appeal to introduce unlawful killing as an option was adjourned – but fresh attempts to overturn the verdict are already under way, sources close to the family say.

Amid protests, proceedings were delayed by half a day as chaotic scenes erupted in and outside court just before the jurors retired to consider their verdict.

Three of Mr de Menezes’s cousins stood up in the courtroom and revealed T-shirts displaying the message: “Your legal right to decide – unlawful killing verdict.”

Mrs de Menezes, 63, said: “Police officers made a lot of mistakes. There were a lot of failures on their part.

“However, the one who was in command was, in my opinion, the one who made the biggest mistake because she was supposed to be in command of something and whatever she did, she did it wrong.”

The inquest at the Oval cricket ground in south London heard details of a series of mistakes made by officers in the hours leading up to the fatal shooting.

For the first time the public was given a full account of the incident from key witnesses on board the Underground train where Mr de Menezes was killed.

The Metropolitan Police was under huge pressure after terrorists first murdered 52 innocent people in London on July 7 2005 and then launched further failed attacks on the capital a fortnight later.

On July 22 a massive manhunt was under way to find Osman and the other on-the-run bombers from the day before amid fears they could strike again.

Osman’s gym card, found in a rucksack abandoned in the attack on Shepherd’s Bush Tube station, led police to a block of flats in Scotia Road in Tulse Hill, south London.

Mr de Menezes, an electrician from a poor Brazilian family who had come to the UK in 2002 to make a better future for himself, was living in the same building with two cousins.

On the morning of July 22 he apparently overslept and did not leave the house until 9.34am, by which time he was late for a job in Kilburn, north London.

The Brazilian jumped on a number two bus and transferred to a Northern Line Underground train at Stockwell station.

But a surveillance officer, who was urinating into a plastic container at the time, had watched him come out of the block of flats and judged that he might be Osman.

Police followed Mr de Menezes all the way to Stockwell, at which point Ms Dick gave the order that he should be stopped before he got onto a train.

At 10.06am the Brazilian was shot dead by police marksmen using hollow-point bullets that killed him instantly.

Surveillance officers on the ground never positively identified Mr de Menezes as Osman, but commanders at New Scotland Yard believed they did.

The inquest heard dramatic evidence from the two police marksmen – codenamed C2 and C12 – who fired the fatal shots.

C12 broke down in court as he relived the moment he shot Mr de Menezes, fearing he was a suicide bomber about to attempt to murder all those around him.

He said: “I did not believe I had an alternative – and if I did not act, members of the public would be killed, my colleagues would be killed and I would be killed.”

Scotland Yard witnesses insisted the armed officers identified themselves by shouting “armed police” after boarding the train at Stockwell, but none of the civilian passengers recalled hearing this.

C2 and C12 expressed their regrets to the Menezes family during the inquest, but colleagues felt they had nothing to apologise for.

Chief Inspector Martin Rush, a senior firearms instructor who led the pair’s training, said: “They should be admired but they are actually being vilified and I think that is dreadfully unfortunate.”

As the verdict was returned, the Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed it would carry out a review.

A statement from the watchdog said: “The IPCC will now review the evidence to see if there are any new issues to consider.”