Ashley shot naked and unarmed

James Ashley was shot at close range by police in January 1998

James Ashley was shot dead while naked and unarmed by police officers at his home in 1998.

The dead man's family has been granted permission to take legal action. BBC News looks at the events surrounding his death.

James Ashley was in bed and unarmed when officers burst into his flat in Sussex at 4am on 15 January 1998.

Mr Ashley, 39, was shot - in front of his girlfriend - at the flat in St Leonards after incorrect intelligence reports suggested he might be armed.

Two subsequent investigations into the affair criticised Sussex police for methods used in gathering intelligence, planning and executing the raid.

No-one has been convicted of any wrongdoing.

There have been calls for a public inquiry into the incident but this has not taken place.

Wrong information

Mr Ashley did have a conviction for manslaughter, and Sussex police said at the time that he was wanted in connection with a stabbing at a pub in the town.

It was later reported that his only involvement in the stabbing had been to pull the assailant off the victim.

Firearms officers had been briefed that there was a large haul of drugs in the flat and the occupants could be armed and dangerous.

No hard drugs or firearms were subsequently found.

The officers were instructed to search the flat using the "high risk Bermuda method" favoured for dealing with terrorism.

But they had no plans of the interior, which meant officers had bumped into an ironing board and had been delayed as they had to force an unexpected communal door.

When an armed police officer stepped into the darkened room he thought Mr Ashley was attacking him, and shot him at close range.

Mr Ashley's girlfriend Caroline Courtland-Smith later said Mr Ashley had been walking towards the door to investigate noises they had heard.

Murder charge

A police officer was subsequently charged with murder and manslaughter, but was cleared at the Old Bailey in May 2001.

The judge agreed that he had fired in self-defence believing, mistakenly, that he himself was about to be shot.

Defence barrister Nicholas Purnell, QC, said officers had been "badly served" by those who had organised the raid.

Intelligence information from London had been misinterpreted and Mr Ashley was wrongly linked to a drugs ring.

Authority was sought from, and given by, deputy chief constable Mark Jordan for an armed raid on the basis of information which was "simply not true in a number of significant respects".

Mr Jordan was suspended in February 1999 and retired from the force in December 2001.

He was investigated but no criminal charges were laid.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it did not have enough evidence to charge other senior Sussex officers who had been investigated.

Chief constable Paul Whitehouse was suspended and then retired

Chief constable Paul Whitehouse was suspended and later reinstated, although he was eventually forced to retire from his post after pressure from Home Secretary David Blunkett.

Mr Blunkett wrote to Sussex Police Authority, effectively inviting them to exercise their powers to dismiss the chief constable.

Mr Ashley's family began writing to the Sussex force demanding an apology as far back as 1998.

In 2005, police decided not to release a report on the shooting, saying it would be too expensive.

Sussex Police said files on his death contain 30,000 pieces of paper, which would cost £3,000 to photocopy.

And, in January 2007, the dead man's family sent a wreath to the Sussex chief constable on the ninth anniversary of the death.

His sister, Pauline, said it was to show that "after all these years we still have not got justice".