London shooting victim's pathologist could be struck off

[emad]

Victim's pathologist could be struck off
By Richard Ford, Home Correspondent



THE pathologist who conducted the post-mortem examination of Jean Charles de Menezes is facing disciplinary action over allegations that he changed the conclusions of a previous post-mortem report.

Kenneth Shorrock could be struck off the medical register for altering a report that led to a surgeon being accused of manslaughter. A report prepared for the General Medical Council (GMC) said that Dr Shorrock’s post-mortem examination of Gladys Allen fell seriously below expected standards. The case is to be heard on September 5.

Dr Shorrock initially said that Mrs Allen’s death in the operating theatre could not be blamed on her surgeon, but a year later he changed his report and left out a paragraph that had cleared the surgeon.

Mrs Allen, 78, bled to death at Dewsbury and District Hospital, West Yorkshire, in January 2000 after an operation to remove a cancerous kidney.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-1745086,00.html

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1. MoD intelligence officers in trouble over this fiasco?

Several UK TV news reports have said categorically that de Menezes was under military surveillance in London after being linked to an alleged terrorist training camp in rural Wales. And that a positive ID came from a military source, and not the Metropolitan Police.

Another MoD intelligence failure? Like Iraq WMD and 9/11?

The Independent Police Complaints Commission enquiry isn't due to report on the de Menezes shooting until November according to last night's BBC News.

[Taxloss]

2. There was some sort of catastrophic breakdown in communications.

That much is clear.

Two services "cooperating" - with different languages and cultures - might explain it.

[evermind]

6. That's an interesting point. Also, the Observer this sunday

reported that the shooting team, for reasons unknown, had not submitted their report to the IPPC:

For reasons as yet unclear, members of the firearms team have yet to submit their own account of the events to the IPCC. The two members of the team believed to have fired the fatal shots are known to have gone on holiday immediately after the shooting.

In one case, the holiday had been pre-booked, in the other the leave was authorised by Blair, who yesterday received the backing of the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke: 'I am very happy with the conduct, not only of Sir Ian Blair, but the whole Metropolitan Police in relation to this inquiry.'

What an unbelievable quote that is, BTW: "very happy with the conduct" - like saying "Oh yes! It made my day when they shot that innocent traveller, I was over the moon!"

[evermind]

8. You were spot on with that comment - the Times is reporting

not only that police and army are at loggerheads about what happened, but that they couldn't receive instructions about what to do because their radios weren't working, due to being underground.

The scenario in the Times article is the surveillance team having decided that there was no threat from de Menezes, but unable to communicate that to the shooting team because of the radio link being down.

I dunno - as I posted earlier, you'd think that if they thought there was any risk they'd have nabbed him as he left the flats. Plenty of time to see there was no way he was concealing a bomb. All above ground. Plenty of time to convey the lack of threat to shooters before they went underground and had their completely predictable communications failure, I'd have thought.

What a complete balls-up this is turning out to be.

Anyway, Times article:

Army and police war of words on last moments underground
By Daniel McGrory, Michael Evans and Stewart Tendler

POLICE marksmen and army surveillance teams following Jean Charles de Menezes onto a Tube train could not receive orders in the vital moments before he was shot dead because their radios did not work underground.

This communication failure has emerged as the likely reason why Scotland Yard commanders were not told that the 27-year-old Brazilian was not the suicide bomber that they were hunting.

The undercover officers sitting alongside Mr de Menezes are understood to have decided he was not a threat, but they could not get this message back to Gold Command at the Yard nor relay it to the marksmen.

As the firearms officers ran into the station they are believed to have been out of touch with everyone else involved in the operation. It has been disclosed that the two groups involved — one from Scotland Yard and the other from the Army — were using different radio networks as they trailed the innocent electrician from his home on July 22. Officers on the train are understood to have decided that from the way Mr de Menezes was dressed, and that he was not carrying a bag, he was not about to blow himself up.

But that crucial assessment by surveillance experts reportedly never reached the Yard officers taking part.

(...continues...)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-20749-1748176-20749,00.html

(My comment on the final 2 paras, as above, is: any judgement on the threat presented by de Menezes could (and indeed should) have been made well before he got near the tube station.

[lockdown]

3. You know

I've got a nasty feeling the "terror training camp" in Wales that (at least partly) led to de Menezes' residence, and that seems to be part of the "link" between July 7th & 21st that Ian Blair and Charles Clarke for two are still talking up, is nothing more than the National Whitewater Centre in Bala that Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer were at in the weeks before.

At least one of the weekend reports said the link between de Menezes' residence and the Wales "terror camp" had since been dismissed as nothing, and if the reports of no link between the bombing cells are true then the "terror camp" was probably a non-lead from the beginning of the bombing investigation.

[emad]

4. Maybe. Also maybe someone fed misinformation that led the

cops to shoot that innocent Brazilian.

Wouldn't be the first time in the UK.

[evermind]

5. My God! The Lake District must be a hotbed of terrorist training too!

Think of the number of Outdoor Centres there are there!

Yep, the same thought occured to me, too.

[lockdown]

7. Kendal Mint Cake is now cause for suspicion

I can't find the link, but I think I saw at least one mention of the "camp" being near the Whitewater Centre, and not the place itself. But the Whitewater Centre isn't residential afaik... you mention the number of centres in the lakes, it's similar around that part of Wales as I recall and many people will go canoeing/rafting at the Centre but be camping/staying nearby to do other things too in the area like hiking.

Common behaviour. But already suspicious behaviour to MI5 and Scotland Yard for over 2 years apparently, so it would be no surprise if investigators gave such a link more credence than it perhaps had, because it fitted what they already thought was happening.

Maybe there is something to what they believe about potential recruits being sent on outward-bounds courses, don't know, but even if so just vaguely calling it "terror training camp" would be misleading to say the least.