Rumours of police infighting prior to continuance of Menezes inquest

The Sunday Times (the only paper in which this story seemed to appear):

Scotland Yard is bracing itself for a “cutthroat” public showdown in which officers blame one another for the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian electrician, on a Tube train three years ago.

The Metropolitan police’s rival firearms and surveillance teams have hired separate lawyers to attack each other at the inquest into the shooting at Stockwell station in south London in July 2005.

Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, fears that the hearing in September could turn into a month-long show of public infighting as his officers try to defend themselves under questioning by Michael Mansfield QC, the barrister for the de Menezes family.

The officers are said to be preparing what is known in legal circles as a “cutthroat” defence – two witnesses seeking to destroy each other’s credibility as each claims that the other was implicated in a crime. …

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