Met found guilty over Menezes shooting
London’s police force has been found guilty of breaching health and safety laws when they gunned down Jean Charles de Menezes in Stockwell undergound station in July 2005.
On their second day of their deliberation the jury found the Metropolitan Police guilty.
The Met was fined £175,000 and ordered to pay £385,000 costs by judge Mr Justice Henriques at the Old Bailey.
The jury made clear that they fully clear the operation commander Cressida Dick of any culpability.
Brian Paddick, until May the UK’s most senior gay police officer, clashed with his boss, Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, over when the Met knew that they had shot an innocent man at Stockwell tube station on July 22nd 2005.
Sir Ian insists that he did not know Brazilian Jean Charles De Menezes was not a suicide bomber until the next day.
Mr Paddick gave evidence to an independent investigation that suspicions were raised almost immediately.
In June 2006 Mr Paddick was moved sideways by Sir Ian, and his career at the Met was not expected to develop beyond his current grade.
He has signed a six-figure deal with publisher Simon Schuster to write his story about life at the highest levels of the police, including the Menezes shooting.
He left the force at the end of May.
Mr Paddick came to public prominence as borough commander of Lambeth, when his policy of targeting resources at class A drug dealers and taking a more relaxed approach to cannabis use caused right-wing outrage.
He is one of three candidates for the Liberal Democrat nomination for Mayor of London.
