Family of Jean Charles de Menezes slam Cressida Dick's appointment as Met Police commissioner

The new commissioner was in charge of the operation which resulted in the in the fatal shooting of the innocent Brazilian in 2005
Cressida Dick outside New Scotland Yard after her historic appointment
Charlotte Ball/PA
Tom Powell23 February 2017
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The family of Jean Charles de Menezes have slammed Cressida Dick’s appointment as the Met’s new commissioner – claiming it’s proof that “police officers can act with impunity”.

Ms Dick was in charge of the operation which resulted in the fatal shooting of the 27-year-old Brazilian national at Stockwell Tube station in 2005. He had been wrongly identified as a potential suicide bomber.

The 56-year-old officer was later cleared of any blame in his death by a jury.

Mr de Menezes family have released a statement saying they have “serious concerns” over the appointment of Ms Dick, who becomes the Met’s first female commissioner in its 188-year history.

Jean Charles de Menezes was wrongly identified as a potential suicide bomber 
Metropolitan Police

They said: "We had to face a tragedy that no family should ever have to experience; the tragic death of a loved one at the hands of those we entrusted to serve us and protect us.

"At the helm of the police on that fateful day when Jean was killed was Cressida Dick. The message of today's appointment is that police officers can act with impunity.

"The commissioner of the Metropolitan police is the most senior police officer in the country, a post that is expected to uphold the highest standards of professionalism, to command public confidence and be responsible for ensuring that the police act lawfully and are held to account."

Mr de Menezes' parents hold up photos of their son in their village in Brazil two days after his death
Reuters

It came as Ms Dick spoke to press for the first time since her appointment, flanked by London mayor Sadiq Khan and Home Secretary Amber Rudd outside New Scotland Yard.

She said she felt “extraordinarily privileged” and “very humbled” to lead the UK’s biggest police force.

“It’s beyond my wildest dreams,” she added. “I love policing and I love the Met.”

The de Menezes family initially wrote to Mr Khan last week saying Ms Dick would not “command public confidence” if she got the job.

During a hunt for four suspects of a failed suicide bombing on the London Underground in 2005, armed officers mistook Mr de Menezes for one of the terrorists and shot him while he sat in a Tube carriage.

Officers believed he was would-be suicide bomber Hussain Osman who lived in the same block of flats as the Brazilian. When the force was later found guilty of breaching health and safety laws, the jury cleared Ms Dick of blame.

Ms Dick, who is highly respected among colleagues, left the Met in 2014 to take up a senior and sensitive role at the Foreign Office after she was moved from her counter terrorism post by Sir Bernard.

She beat competition from three shortlisted rivals, the current Met counter terror chief Mark Rowley, Essex chief constable Stephen Kavanagh and Sara Thornton, head of the National Police Chiefs' Council.

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