Health and Safety 6 – that defence opening statement in full

This was an unprecedented situation.

We took a lot of phone calls that month.

There was no way we could predict that someone might leave a building we were watching.

We never expected to be uncertain about a suspect’s identity.

We never expected a suspect might turn out to be innocent.

We never expected that a firearms team might disappear for four hours (shurely they can have that one! – Ed)

No-one could predict how a potential suicide bomber might act, especially one without a bomb on his person, travelling to work.

Not every mistake is a crime.

It is easy to be critical of the police who do a difficult job in fast moving situations.

But to question their decisions is to seriously impede their effectiveness in combating serious crime.

Clearly people who think otherwise have 20/20 hindsight and have totally misconstrued and misunderstood how these operations work.

The case continues.