I'm sure Sir Ian Blair will have to go as a result of his dreadful handling of the De Menezes killing. Perhaps he won't be clearing his desk until the IPPC reports this week on the unacceptable way he dealt with the Commission after the killing.
Much has been written about his position but I found Andrew Rawnsley's piece in Sunday's Observer the most perceptive.
What seemed to have been missed in the pages of commentary was the withering comment of Mr Justice Henriques on the Met's conduct of the case.
During sentencing, He said this
"Every single failure here has been disputed. Some of these failings have been simply beyond explanation. There has been no single admission to any one of the alleged 19 failings."
This is code for "You've no defence to any one of the charges so why have you wasted the court's time putting forward this nonsense."
It seems inconceivable that when the Health and Safety Act summonses dropped on Sir Ian's desk he did not seek counsel's advice on the prospects of successfully defending the allegations. It's equally inconceivable that a junior barrister would not have advised that those prospects were between slim and nothing. The only reason that the Met could possibly have to fight such a hopeless case-after all nobody was going to haul Sir Ian off to clink-was to further blacken de Menezes.
And with instructions from the Met, Ronald Thwaites QC, performed this in spades.
Hardly surprising. Thwaites is described on his chambers' website.
"The leading name here is "hard cross-examiner" and jury advocate" Ronald Thwaites QC. Often brought in as "a robust defender" in cases likely to affect the reputation of the police, Thwaites is not only noted for "his involvement in a host of headline cases" but also for "his ability to turn on a sixpence from the sledgehammer approach to a more subtle line of questioning."-Chambers and Partners 2006, Police Law.
Sledgehammer indeed.
And if I were a London Council Tax payer, I'd be wondering why the £ 325,000 costs ordered by the judge together with a similar amount spend by the Met on lawyers, were squandered in such a hopeless case.
Comments