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Blair Defends Police Chief Over Shooting Public Inquiry Almost Inevitable Despite Support

Posted on: Monday, 22 August 2005, 09:00 CDT

TONY Blair rallied to the defence of Sir Ian Blair yesterday, although the Metropolitan police chief admitted it was 24 hours before he knew Jean Charles de Menezes had been shot in error by anti-terror police.

The prime minister is on holiday but has kept regular contact with colleagues and officials. Downing Street refused to be drawn further on Mr Blair's thoughts, but there was growing speculation at Westminster last night that a public inquiry into police handling of the case was almost inevitable.

Sir Ian's admission in a Sunday newspaper that he believed for 24 hours his officers had shot dead a failed suicide bomber, shocked the Menezes family.

Gareth Peirce, of Birnberg Peirce, which is representing the family, said: "We express incredulity that the senior police officer would have made extravagant claims from the outset without first informing themselves of the true facts . . .

would have been negligent in the extreme."

Charles Clarke, the home secretary, who has kept a fairly low profile since the shooting, expressed his full backing for the whole of the Metropolitan Police as well as Sir Ian, but he made it clear he wanted a full investigation into the tragedy.

Speaking to the BBC, he said: "Obviously, the death of Mr de Menezes is a terrible tragedy as everybody acknowledges, and it needs to be very properly and fully investigated, which is what the Independent - I emphasise, the Independent - Police Complaints Commission is doing and will do."

John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, also endorsed Sir Ian on the BBC yesterday morning, but he condemned Scotland Yard's offer of GBP15,000 to the Portuguese-speaking Menezes family in a complex legal letter which was written in English.

He said: "I haven't seen the letter and I think it would be terrible if it was done that way.

It does sound not a very sensitive way to deal with such a difficult matter."

Sir Ian, who has already been accused of a cover-up after leaked documents from the investigation into the death appeared to contradict earlier police and witness accounts of the incident at Stockwell Tube station, admitted he was horrified when told of the mistake.

He said: "Somebody came in at 10.30 (Saturday morning) and said 'We have some difficulty here, there is a lack of connection'. I thought, 'That's dreadful, what are we going to do about that?'" Sir Ian's difficulties are compounded by reports that senior police officers had strong suspicions only hours after the shooting that the man killed was not a terrorist or connected to attempted attacks on London.

Keith Hellawell, the former West Yorkshire chief constable and drugs czar, questioning Sir Ian's judgment, said: "There was a lot of misinformation after the announcement by Sir Ian Blair and that wasn't countered in any way at all.

"It now comes out that this information was known to be wrong to the police in the Metropolitan area within a very short time, within hours.

"They would certainly have feedback very, very quickly about what he did and what each officer did, and none of that came to the public domain.

"The public are very much on your side when they are feeling the desperation of terror and they want this calming voice. But if they believe this calming voice is giving them untruths, or is perhaps not relating information back to the public, it starts to undermine the public's confidence."

Source: Herald, The; Glasgow (UK)

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