Menezes coroner attacks Scotland Yard flaws over shooting

The coroner who presided over the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes today criticised the "stark difference" in the way police officers and civilians were treated in the wake of the shooting.

Sir Michael Wright highlighted a string of flaws at Scotland Yard after officers' accounts were rejected last year.

In his recommendations, sent to Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, he expressed concern that officers were allowed to work on their accounts together "for a period of many hours" after the shooting on 22 July 2005.

Sir Michael wrote: "There was a stark difference between their experience and the treatment of civilians, who were required to give their accounts promptly and independently.

"Officers were not cross-examined on the basis that their evidence was the product of independent recollection."

His report follows an inquest at the Oval cricket ground, which ended in December after jurors dismissed the Met's claim that the killing was lawful.

Brazilian Mr de Menezes was shot dead at Stockwell Tube after police mistook him for one of the terrorists behind failed suicide attacks the previous day.