Met chief in 'cover up' attempt over shooting

dailymail: Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair suggested a change in the law in the wake of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes so that he would not have to provide information to an independent inquiry.

On the day the Brazilian electrician was shot dead by police, Sir Ian wrote to Home Office Permanent Secretary Sir John Gieve saying he should be able to suspend as he saw fit a legal requirement to give material to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Sir Ian said revealing information to external investigators, as he was required to do under section 17 of the Police Reform Act, could compromise police tactics and intelligence sources and put lives at risk.

The existence of Sir Ian's letter, in which he said he had decided the IPCC should not be allowed to investigate the shooting, emerged six weeks ago but it was published in full by the Home Office today following a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

The letter was written hours after Mr de Menezes's was wrongly identified as a suicide bomb suspect and shot at Stockwell Tube station, south London on July 22. The letter was wrongly headed with July 21, the date of the failed London suicide bombings.

It was copied to IPCC chairman Nick Hardwick and Metropolitan Police Authority chairman Len Duvall. Sir Ian has strongly denied that the letter was part of an attempted cover-up or that he tried to block an independent inquiry into the shooting to protect his officers. Read more