A 43-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with the leak of documents from the investigation into the death of Jean-Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian electrician wrongly shot by police as a terrorist suspect after the London bombings in July.
Leicestershire Constabulary was asked, as an outside authority, to investigate the leak after ITV News ran details of the inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission into the shooting at Stockwell underground station on 22 July.
The leaked documents showed that police statements immediately after the shooting were misleading, including comments made by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair.
Blair initially claimed that police had shouted a warning before approaching Menezes, but the documents said this was not the case. They also contradicted early reports that the Brazilian was wearing a bulky jacket that could have hidden explosives and that he jumped the ticket barrier at the stations. The police did not admit these reports were misleading until after the leak.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1577923,00.htmlSo these leaks are so important that they're arresting people. Yet Ian Blair said, a couple of days ago:
Sir Ian also expressed regret that reports carrying false details about the Brazilian shortly after he was shot were not corrected. Some claimed he had aroused suspicion by wearing a heavy padded coat and had vaulted over a ticket barrier into the station although Sir Ian said these were not put about by the police.
He said: "It was a mistake not to have corrected the misinformation. I wish we'd done that sooner. That I regret."
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1976052005Gosh, you'd think they'd be thanking the person who 'corrected the misinformation', wouldn't you? After all, Blair gave the impression that the Met were just too busy to do it themselves at first. In fact, he gave the impression that they did do it themselves, rather than it being leaked out. Also, why arrest someone for saying that media reports (which didn't come from the police, oh, no, obviously not, how could you ever get that impression) were wrong?
I felt a bit of a fool on DU for quoting these 'misleading non-police' reports about jumping the barrier and warnings being shouted, and saying the police were trying to do their job in difficult circumstances. Now it turns out the man at the top is a big weasel, arresting anyone who dares to contradict his lies. What a disgrace to Britain he is.