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Abstract

A leading coroner has warned that “doubt could be cast” over the evidence of armed police officers at an inquest into the death of a man shot dead last year, after it was revealed how those involved later wrote up their witness statements together.

Police inspector Shaun Dowe, the officer in charge of the Met’s own investigation into the killing of Dean Joseph, 40, in Canonbury last September, admitted yesterday (Thursday): “There are flaws in the process, I do recognise that.”

Mr Joseph was the first person to be fatally shot by Met firearms officers since 29-year-old Mark Duggan was killed in Tottenham in 2011. An inquest into Mr Joseph’s death started at St Pancras Coroner’s Court on Monday and is expected to last four weeks.

The court heard that he had held ex-partner Julie Moyses hostage in her east Canonbury flat during a two-hour siege before PC Stuart Brown fired two shots.

Earlier that night Mr Joseph had smashed his way into her Shepperton Road home before putting a knife to her throat and warning her: “One of us is going to die tonight.”

Inspector Dowe said that the officers had written up their detailed accounts of the incident three days later, together in a room, over a 10-hour period.

He said that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which investigates deaths following police contact, had asked the Met not to allow the officers to write their detailed statements together, requesting to interview the officers individually instead. The officers declined. Last year the Met accepted that its “post-incident procedure” did not “attract public confidence and needed to be made more transparent”. It now insists that a senior officer is present while witness statements are written.

Inspector Dowe said: “It’s only right that officers who are trying to reflect as best as they can have access to the things that they have heard and said. And having a senior officer there improves the integrity of the process.”

Officers are also warned against conferring about their “honestly held belief”.

However, the inspector admitted that a senior colleague, who took notes when officers wrote down their detailed accounts, had recorded the marksmen conferring about whether the TV in the room where Mr Joseph was shot was on, whether they had discussed intervening, the length of time PC Brown took aim and had a discussion around the use of taser. Asked by Coroner Mary Hassell whether he thought that was appropriate, the inspector said: “I don’t think that is particularly good.”

Ms Hassell told the inspector: “There is a risk that the recollection of an individual officer is contaminated by other officers, and the public perception could be that the police are colluding. And the fact that an officer may not be believed when he is trying to tell the truth, but there is doubt cast over his evidence, it has the potential to throw up doubt.” The inspector replied: “It is a risk in the process, we are open to challenge about it.”