THE senior policewoman who led the operation that ended in Jean Charles de Menezes's death choked back tears yesterday as she revealed she thought about what happened every day.
Cressida Dick, a deputy assistant commissioner with the Metropolitan Police, told an inquest she felt "terrible" when she learned the innocent Brazilian had been shot dead by police marksmen after being mistaken for a terrorist.
She described the
death as "an awful tragedy", but insisted officers under her command did nothing wrong that day.
The victim's mother, Maria Otone de Menezes, was said to be "disappointed and offended" by her comments.
Mrs de Menezes, 63, attending the inquest for the first time yesterday, broke down and had to leave the courtroom as Ms Dick recounted the events that led to her son's death.
On 22 July, 2005, Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head at Stockwell Tube station in south London after being mistaken for the failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman.
Ms Dick was in charge of the Scotland Yard control room overseeing the pursuit by surveillance and firearms officers who feared the young Brazilian was the on-the-run terrorist.
Nicholas Hilliard, QC, counsel to the inquest, asked the senior officer how she felt when she learned that an innocent man had been shot.
Ms Dick replied: "It was a terrible thing to happen. And from that day to this, I have thought about this often, every day – wondered what we could have done differently, if anything. Did we act reasonably?
"I set out that morning to protect the people of London and to save people, and the last thing I wanted to do is have an innocent person shot. But that is what happened and I regret it deeply."
Ms Dick told the inquest Mr de Menezes had been the victim of "terrible and extraordinary circumstances".
She listed a series of "unfortunate" coincidences that led to him being incorrectly identified as a terrorist the day after Osman and three other men launched attempted attacks on London's transport network. These included: the fact he lived in the same block of flats as Osman; the fact he looked "very like" Osman; the fact the first surveillance officer was "indisposed" and got only a short glance at him; Mr de Menezes's behaviour in getting off and then back on a bus; the fact he entered the Tube station used by three of the 21 July would-be bombers.
Ms Dick told the inquest: "One thing that clearly went wrong was we, as a nation, did not manage to prevent those attacks on 7 July or, indeed, Hussain Osman and others' attacks on the 21st.
"Mr de Menezes was the victim of some terrible and extraordinary circumstances the day afterwards.
"If you ask me whether I think anybody did anything wrong or unreasonable in the operation, I don't think they did."
The inquest heard Ms Dick went to the wrong room and missed the start of an important meeting of senior officers to discuss strategy on the morning of the shooting.
She had arrived early at New Scotland Yard and went to a room on the 16th floor for the 7am conference. But ten minutes later, she received a call to tell her she had been sent to the wrong place and should have been on the 15th floor.
Asked who was present when she arrived at the meeting at 7:15am, Ms Dick said: "I don't think they were all there. It certainly was a meeting in which people came and went. I had the feeling it might have been going on for some time before I was there."
The inquest will continue today, when Ms Dick is due to be cross-examined by the de Menezes family barrister, Michael Mansfield, QC.
