London Met chief backed over shooting

Ian Blair

Britain's Prime Minister and his deputy have given their full backing to Sir Ian Blair as the pressure built on the embattled Metropolitan Police Commissioner over the shooting of a Brazilian electrician.

Sir Ian claimed yesterday that he was not informed of Jean Charles de Menezes' innocence until 24 hours after he was killed at Stockwell Tube station in south London by police hunting suicide bombers. By that stage Sir Ian had already asserted that the shooting was "directly linked" to anti-terror operations.

Downing Street indicated Tony Blair gave unqualified backing to Sir Ian. Asked if he had full confidence in the commissioner, a spokeswoman replied simply: "Yes."

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott gave similar support, but made clear his dismay over the police handling of the crisis.

Asked on BBC's News 24's Sunday programme if Sir Ian enjoyed his "full and unqualified" confidence, Prescott also replied: "Yes."

But he criticised Scotland Yard over a 15,000 ($38,780) ex-gratia offer to Menezes' parents five days after the killing, by a senior Met officer without the family's lawyers present.

The family rejected it, condemning the move for insensitivity and because it was made in a complex legal letter in English to a family who speak only Portuguese.

Prescott said he had not seen the letter, but added: "I think it would be terrible if it was done that way."

He refused to rule out a public inquiry into the shooting, but urged people to wait for the conclusions of the inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. He acknowledged: "There are matters of great concern here. I wouldn't want you to think that I am entirely happy with the events. It was a terrible tragedy that that young lad was killed."

In an interview with the News of the World, Sir Ian said he first learned of Menezes' innocence the morning after the killing on July 22.

He denied accusations of a cover-up, pointing out that he brought the case to the attention of the Home Office and the IPCC.

 

Gareth Peirce, representing the Menezes family, condemned Sir Ian for "extreme negligence" and complained of "a catalogue of disturbing features from the start to finish and I suspect they haven't finished yet".

Scotland Yard said: "We can confirm a letter signed by the Metropolitan Police solicitors has been passed to Mr de Menezes' family which provides a 15,000 payment. The letter is very specific that this sum does not inhibit any future claim."

But the family told the Mail on Sunday they had been pressured into meeting a Met officer without their lawyers. Menezes' brother Giovani, said: "They thought we were poor, stupid people. We may be poor but we are not that stupid. We will not exchange money for my brother's life - but we will punish them."

Meanwhile, it was claimed yesterday that CCTV tapes depicting Menezes' last moments were handed out to police but returned blank.

Stockwell station said it had not been aware of any camera faults.

The Mail on Sunday quoted a transport union official as saying: "The police took the tapes away. When they brought them back three or four days later, they said, 'These are no good to us. They're blank."'

Ann Cryer, a Labour member of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, which will question Sir Ian next month, said the existence of a "shoot-to-kill policy" disturbed her.

She said Sir Ian and Home Secretary Charles Clarke must explain why there was a five-day delay before the IPCC began its investigation.

Meanwhile, the level of terrorist threat to Britain has been downgraded from "critical" to "severe general" by intelligence agencies.

The move was secretly agreed because intelligence has no specific information of an imminent attack.

The threat level was raised to Level 1 (critical) after the July 7 bombings which killed 52 people. It was lowered to Level 2G (severe general) on July 21, hours before a second wave of failed attacks, but was raised again immediately.

Whitehall officials played down a claim that police believed they had foiled a potential al Qaeda gas attack on the Houses of Parliament. A Whitehall source said: "I heard nothing about it and I would have expected to."

- INDEPENDENT