Fatal error: 20 years on, the Met still has questions to answer about the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes. A new drama investigates the tragedy

The award-winning producer and screenwriter of Philomena’s new show, Suspect, is about the shooting of an innocent young Brazilian electrician on the London Underground in the wake of the 7/7 bombings. Here he asks why the force still can’t admit that it acted incompetently‘Everybody’s human. Mistakes can be made… But you are really not prepared to say that any mistake [was made] here, are you?”Michael Mansfield QC put this question to Cressida Dick – then deputy assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan police – at the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, a young man who, 20 years ago this summer, was shot dead at Stockwell station in south London by Met firearms officers. The inquest took place in 2008, three years after his shooting on the morning of 22 July 2005, which was 15 days after the 7/7 bombings in London and one day after copycat bombers had tried and failed to detonate more explosives on the transport system and then fled. De Menezes was a 27-year-old Brazilian man living in London, an electrician on his way to work, with a travel card in his pocket and a copy of the free newspaper Metro, which he’d just picked up, tucked under his arm. A man completely unconnected to terrorism, terrorists, bombs, extremism or fundamentalism. A man not carrying a bag or rucksack. A man wearing jeans and a thin denim jacket. Continue reading...

Apr 6, 2025 - 09:36
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Fatal error: 20 years on, the Met still has questions to answer about the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes. A new drama investigates the tragedy

The award-winning producer and screenwriter of Philomena’s new show, Suspect, is about the shooting of an innocent young Brazilian electrician on the London Underground in the wake of the 7/7 bombings. Here he asks why the force still can’t admit that it acted incompetently

‘Everybody’s human. Mistakes can be made… But you are really not prepared to say that any mistake [was made] here, are you?”

Michael Mansfield QC put this question to Cressida Dick – then deputy assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan police – at the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, a young man who, 20 years ago this summer, was shot dead at Stockwell station in south London by Met firearms officers. The inquest took place in 2008, three years after his shooting on the morning of 22 July 2005, which was 15 days after the 7/7 bombings in London and one day after copycat bombers had tried and failed to detonate more explosives on the transport system and then fled. De Menezes was a 27-year-old Brazilian man living in London, an electrician on his way to work, with a travel card in his pocket and a copy of the free newspaper Metro, which he’d just picked up, tucked under his arm. A man completely unconnected to terrorism, terrorists, bombs, extremism or fundamentalism. A man not carrying a bag or rucksack. A man wearing jeans and a thin denim jacket. Continue reading...