MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

London's police guilty over shooting of Brazilian Menezes

MP Commissioner Sir Ian Blair

The Metropolitan Police has been found guilty of breaching health and safety laws over the shooting of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes.

The 27-year-old died following a "catastrophic" series of errors in the operation which ended in his death. He was shot seven times by specialist firearms officers at Stockwell Tube station after being mistaken for failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman. Prosecutors at the Old Bailey set out 19 alleged failings in the police operation in the hours leading up to the shooting on July 22, 2005. The jury convicted the force on the second day of its deliberations. The Metropolitan Police was fined £175,000 and ordered to pay £385,000 costs by trial judge Mr Justice Henriques. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was in court to hear the verdict. In a rider to the verdict, the jury cleared the operation commander Cressida Dick, with the foreman saying: "In reaching this verdict the jury attaches no personal culpability to Commander Dick." The trial and investigation is estimated to have cost around £3.5 million in public money. The Met Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, whose office was on trial during the case, said before it started that he feared a guilty verdict would have a "profound" impact on policing throughout the UK.