Menezes police 'lacked photos'

Police who mistakenly killed Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes in south London relied on poor-quality pictures, an inquest has heard.

More than 30 other police photographs of real would-be suicide bomber, Hussain Osman, were not passed onto the team trying to hunt him down.

An unnamed officer said the pictures may have given marksmen a "better chance" of identifying Osman.

Mr de Menezes was shot dead by police marksmen in Stockwell on 22 July, 2005.

The inquest heard that in 2004 a police surveillance team had taken more than 30 photographs of Osman on a camping trip in the Lake District.

But the "Operation Ragstone" images in Cumbria were not examined after Osman launched a failed bomb attack in London on July 21 2005 because officers were unaware of any link.

Marksmen who mistook the bomber for Mr de Menezes relied instead on "poor quality" CCTV image and a gym card picture, described as "not the best" by a detective.

After seeing the photographs for the first time, a senior surveillance officer, named only as Derek, told the inquest the images may have helped before the shooting.

He said: "Anything that would give us a better chance of identifying him (Osman) would be an advantage.

"In terms of comparing I would not have been able to say positively - but in my terminology there is a strong resemblance.

"I do not think it would have been misleading. Anything that we had would have been welcome."

"I had one spare hand at the time and I grabbed the radio and transmitted."
'Frank'

The inquest also heard that a police officer was urinating in his surveillance van when Jean Charles de Menezes walked past.

The officer, named as Frank, insisted he had not neglected his duties by failing to film Mr de Menezes.

He said he still managed to get a good look at Mr de Menezes leaving his flat in Tulse Hill, south London.

When asked how he failed to film the incident, he added: "I had one spare hand at the time and I grabbed the radio and transmitted."

After the operations room was told "he's worth another look", surveillance officers held back from stopping Mr de Menezes before he got on a bus over fears for the safety of mothers and children nearby, the inquest heard.

Frank told the inquest how he initially believed Mr de Menezes was not failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman but then changed his mind.

When asked whether he felt he did the right thing by putting down his video camera when he was "caught short", Frank said: "Yes sir."

'Greatest failure'

Michael Mansfield QC, for the de Menezes family, said surveillance information Frank gave over the radio was "neither here nor there."

Mr Mansfield also said the fact Mr de Menezes was not stopped from getting on the bus was possibly one of the greatest failures in the investigation.

Explaining how he managed to catch a sight of Mr de Menezes, Frank said: "My initial thought was that it was a negative. It was only when Mr de Menezes walked closer to me that I actually compared him to the picture I had.

"I then said it was probably worth somebody else having a look."

The inquest continues.