Photo check 'may have saved Menezes'

Pictures which may have stopped Jean Charles de Menezes being mistaken for a suicide bomber were not checked, an inquest has heard.

Surveillance photographs of Hussain Osman on a camping trip in the Lake District in 2004 were shown to a jury at the Oval cricket ground, south London, for the first time.

But the Operation Ragstone images were not examined after Osman launched a failed bomb attack in London on July 21 the following year.

Instead, the inquest heard, officers relied on a gym card photograph and CCTV images before shooting dead the wrong man.

Detective Chief Inspector Pat Mellody, of the Scotland Yard anti-terrorist squad, said surveillance photos were not examined "because events overtook us".

He added: "The investigation was running to try to contain the situation that we believed was developing."

Asked whether he accepted criticism for being at fault, Mr Mellody said: "I do not accept that.

"I believe at that time in the morning they had got the imagery - and by imagery I mean the gym cards and the scenes where the individuals who actually tried to conduct the attacks on London were actually filmed."

Earlier, a senior surveillance officer denied telling bosses Mr de Menezes was a suspected suicide bomber, an inquest heard.

The special branch detective contradicted evidence given by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick as he insisted he never said "they think it's him" before the Brazilian electrician's shooting.

Ms Dick previously said the officer, who kept a log of incidents, told the police chief leading the operation "he's very jumpy" as officers closed in on Mr de Menezes.

But the officer, who was the principal link at New Scotland Yard between surveillance and Ms Dick, said Mr de Menezes remained only "possibly identifiable with" failed bomber Hussain Osman throughout the chase.

Speaking behind a screen at Mr de Menezes's inquest at the Oval cricket ground, south London, he added: "I was always under the impression that the subject had been unidentified."

After being asked by David Perry QC, representing Ms Dick, whether he recalled saying "they think it's him", the officer replied: "Certainly not because that would have involved positive identification being made which would, therefore, be recorded in the log straight away because that would indicate it was him."

The jury has heard how officers involved in the pursuit endured "chaotic" scenes in the police control room on the day he was shot.

Ms Dick has admitted her officers were not prepared for a failed suicide bombing.

But she believed Mr de Menezes posed a "great threat" as officers pursued him on July 22, 2005.

The 27-year-old was killed by specialist firearms officers who mistook him for Osman after boarding a train at Stockwell Tube station.

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