Cops get away with murder yet again.
Northern Raider
No penalty for gun death officers
Two police marksmen who killed a man carrying a table leg they mistook for a
gun will not face disciplinary action.
A report into the incident is expected to strongly criticise police
procedures after the 1999 shooting of Scot Harry Stanley in Hackney, east
London.
But the Independent Police Complaints Commission's report will say further
action against Inspector Neil Sharman and Pc Kevin Fagan is "not justified".
Prosecution of the two officers for murder was ruled out last October.
BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said he believed the IPCC would
criticise the de-briefing after the incident as "fundamentally flawed".
STANLEY CASE TIMELINE
Sept 1999: Mr Stanley shot dead
June 2002: Inquest returns open verdict
April 2003: High Court orders new inquest
Oct 2004: Inquest returns unlawful killing verdict
May 2005: High Court quashes second inquest verdict
June 2005: Two officers arrested
October 2005: CPS decides to take no action against the officers
The commission may call for the practice of officers conferring before
writing up their versions of an incident to be reconsidered.
Family solicitor Daniel Machover said Mr Stanley's wife Irene was "bitterly
disappointed" by the decision not to discipline the officers.
Mr Machover said the "extremely shocking" practice of conferring on notes
after an incident gave "a sense of cover-up from day one".
"Immediately after an incident like this, the officers know they are going
to be the subject of a serious criminal investigation," he told BBC Radio
4's Today programme.
Police officers are allowed to confer on their notes after an incident even
when they become suspects, he added.
"No other suspect is allowed that privilege and it shouldn't happen with
police officers."
In the case of Mr Stanley, the officers' accounts "were not believed by two
separate juries" at the two inquests held over his death, Mr Machover added.
The IPCC report will also suggest that, in future cases, the officers
involved should meet the bereaved so both sides can understand the impact
the events have had on their lives.
Police strike
Mr Stanley, originally from North Lanarkshire, had been carrying a coffee
table leg in a blue plastic bag when the officers opened fire as he walked
home from a pub in September 1999.
The officers arrived on the scene having been wrongly tipped off that the
painter and decorator was carrying a sawn-off shotgun in the bag.
Insp Sharman shot the father-of-three in the head, killing him instantly,
while Pc Fagan also opened fire.
The case has caused bad feeling within the police hierarchy and even led to
an unofficial strike by armed officers in 2004 after an inquest returned a
verdict of unlawful killing.
That verdict was later quashed by the High Court.
Following last year's announcement that no criminal charges would be brought
against the Metropolitan police officers, Mr Stanley's family said they were
devastated.
In a separate case last week, the High Court ruled that two police marksmen
who shot dead a man brandishing a gun-shaped lighter had acted lawfully,
upholding an inquest jury's verdict.
Derek Bennett, 29, was hit four times in Brixton, south London, on 16 July
2001. The officers said they had thought the gun was real.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/london/4695604.stm
Published: 2006/02/09 08:43:07 GMT
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