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| Greater Manchester police charged over shooting of Anthony Grainger | Greater Manchester police charged over shooting of Anthony Grainger |
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| A police marksman who shot dead an unarmed man will not face charges, prosecutors have announced, but his force will be prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act. | |
| Anthony Grainger, 36, died from a single shot to the chest as he was sitting in the driver's seat of a car in Culcheth, Cheshire, on the evening of 3 March 2012. | Anthony Grainger, 36, died from a single shot to the chest as he was sitting in the driver's seat of a car in Culcheth, Cheshire, on the evening of 3 March 2012. |
| On Thursday the Crown Prosecution Service said it would prosecute Greater Manchester police (GMP) over the death. The CPS said poor police planning meant the suspects were exposed to unnecessary risk. | On Thursday the Crown Prosecution Service said it would prosecute Greater Manchester police (GMP) over the death. The CPS said poor police planning meant the suspects were exposed to unnecessary risk. |
| The CPS said the prosecution under the Health and Safety at Work Act would be brought against Sir Peter Fahy, in his role as GMP's chief constable. If found guilty, GMP would face a fine. | |
| The incident was investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which did not find any firearms or weapons in the vehicle. None were found on Grainger. | The incident was investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which did not find any firearms or weapons in the vehicle. None were found on Grainger. |
| The shooting followed a planned police operation to arrest a group of men suspected of conspiracy to commit armed robbery. The CPS said it considered charges against the police marksman who fired the fatal shot. The officer, who was interviewed under criminal caution, has said he was acting in self-defence. | The shooting followed a planned police operation to arrest a group of men suspected of conspiracy to commit armed robbery. The CPS said it considered charges against the police marksman who fired the fatal shot. The officer, who was interviewed under criminal caution, has said he was acting in self-defence. |
| The CPS said it considered charges of murder, gross negligence manslaughter or misconduct in public office. But after consideration by top lawyers, including the director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, the CPS decided a jury would most likely acquit the officer. | |
| The CPS said: "Any prosecution for murder would require the CPS, amongst other elements, to prove beyond reasonable doubt that (a) the officer did not honestly believe it was necessary to use force and (b) that the force used was disproportionate in the circumstances as the officer believed them to be. | The CPS said: "Any prosecution for murder would require the CPS, amongst other elements, to prove beyond reasonable doubt that (a) the officer did not honestly believe it was necessary to use force and (b) that the force used was disproportionate in the circumstances as the officer believed them to be. |
| "In the circumstances of this case, our assessment of the evidence is that a jury would accept that the officer did believe his actions were necessary and that the level of force used in response to the threat as he perceived it to be was proportionate." | "In the circumstances of this case, our assessment of the evidence is that a jury would accept that the officer did believe his actions were necessary and that the level of force used in response to the threat as he perceived it to be was proportionate." |
| Grainger's family attacked the CPS decision saying it meant officers who shot dead unarmed suspects were above the law. | |
| Wes Ahmed, Grainger's cousin, told the Guardian: "This decision has ripped us to pieces. We thought it was a clear-cut case. When it comes to a death in custody the system protects the police." | |
| Ahmed described the health and safety prosecution as little more than a "slap on the wrist" and said: "No officer will go to jail for killing Anthony. It's a slap on the wrist and everybody walks away scot-free. They are immune from prosecution. | |
| "I thought the officer was going to be charged because it was a clear-cut case. This is not justice, there is no justice in this country." | |
| Grainger died after he was shot in the chest as he sat in the driver's seat when an officer fired through the windscreen. Two other rounds from a police weapon hit the car's tyres and a CS canister was thrown into the vehicle. | |
| Grainger was born in Salford and lived in Bolton. His occupation was given as "odd job man" at an inquest into this death which was opened and adjourned. | |
| In 2010 he was jailed for 20 months after admitting handling stolen cars. | |
| The first hearing in the health and safety case against GMP will be on 10 February at Westminster magistrates court. | The first hearing in the health and safety case against GMP will be on 10 February at Westminster magistrates court. |
| In its statement, the CPS said: "Anthony Grainger, 36, was shot and killed by an officer of Greater Manchester police on 3 March 2012 during a planned operation to arrest a group of men on suspicion of conspiracy to commit armed robbery. Mr Grainger was not armed when he was fatally shot. An independent investigation was then undertaken into the actions of the officers involved in the planning, approval and conduct of the operation." | |
| The CPS explained the charge against GMP: "It is alleged that an unnecessary exposure to risk was caused by serious deficiencies in the preparation for the police operation." | The CPS explained the charge against GMP: "It is alleged that an unnecessary exposure to risk was caused by serious deficiencies in the preparation for the police operation." |
| Saunders said: "In addition to every employer's responsibility towards their employees, the law also imposes a duty to ensure that work is carried out in a way that ensures, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons outside of their employment are not exposed to risk. The chief officers of police forces are treated as employers for this purpose. It is alleged that there were serious deficiencies in the preparation for this operation that unnecessarily exposed individuals to risk." | Saunders said: "In addition to every employer's responsibility towards their employees, the law also imposes a duty to ensure that work is carried out in a way that ensures, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons outside of their employment are not exposed to risk. The chief officers of police forces are treated as employers for this purpose. It is alleged that there were serious deficiencies in the preparation for this operation that unnecessarily exposed individuals to risk." |
| GMP's deputy chief constable, Ian Hopkins, said the force had co-operated fully with the IPCC, the CPS and the coroner since Grainger's death. | |
| "Our sympathies remain with Mr Grainger's family and we deeply regret the loss that they have suffered," he said in a statement. | |
| "Mr Grainger's family, and the officers involved, have had to wait a long time for this decision to be reached and we share the frustrations over those delays. However, we understand that it was vitally important that the investigation was carried out thoroughly to establish all the facts. | |
| "Now that a charging decision has been made regarding the force itself, it is equally important that these legal processes are allowed to take their course unimpeded in order to seek a resolution for both the family of Mr Grainger and the force." | |
| He said GMP was waiting for the official publication of the IPCC report but, as the coroner's inquest was still open, it could not make any further comment. | |
| The CPS has used health and safety laws before to prosecute police over the shooting of an unarmed man, while deciding not to charge the officers who pulled the trigger. | |
| In 2007 the Met was convicted over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, who officers had mistaken for a suicide bomber. It was fined £175,000 and ordered to pay £385,000 in costs in a ruling that damaged the reputation of the then Met commissioner, Sir Ian Blair. | |
| The basis for the prosecution under health and safety laws in the Grainger case is different to that in the De Menezes case. | |
| In the Grainger incident the prosecution will say poor planning exposed Grainger and other suspects who were the target of police suspicion, to more danger than necessary. In the De Menezes case, prosecutors said no individual officer could be held responsible for the death, but that the force should have done more to protect the public from risk. | |
| The CPS's decision not to prosecute the armed officer in the Grainger case comes after an inquest jury last week decided that Mark Duggan was lawfully killed, despite being unarmed when he came face to face with police. | |
| Fahy, who technically faces the health and safety prosecution, must decide whether to fight the case or, after studying the evidence, plead guilty to minimise costs and damage to the force. | |
| Fahy served as deputy to Blair in the Surrey force. Blair's decision to fight the De Menezes prosecution was opposed by some of his senior team and his decision-making helped hasten his departure from office a year later. | |
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