Killing of Anthony Grainger

Last updated

Anthony Grainger was shot and killed by an armed Greater Manchester Police officer in Culcheth, Cheshire, England, on 3 March 2012. At the time, Grainger was unarmed.

Contents

In January 2014, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that they would be prosecuting Chief Constable Peter Fahy under health and safety legislation over the shooting, [1] [2] and a full public inquiry [3] into Grainger's death was concluded in July 2019, blaming the police. [4]

The Report found that Grainger was a career criminal who posed a potential threat to the police. [5]

Background

In September 2011, Grainger had been arrested and questioned regarding the suspected theft from a police officer of a memory stick containing unencrypted details of 1,075 police informants. Grainger was formally cleared in early January 2012 after police found no evidence connecting him to the memory stick. [6] Despite this, several days after officially clearing him of suspicion, Greater Manchester Police launched Operation Shire, a covert surveillance operation monitoring Grainger and two associates. [7]

Death

Grainger was shot in the chest whilst sitting in a stolen Audi with two other occupants. An armed policeman fired a single shot from a Heckler & Koch MP5 semi-automatic carbine. The bullet went through the windscreen, and entered Grainger's heart and both his lungs. [8]

The other two occupants, along with a third person, were tried and cleared of plotting a robbery. [9]

Investigation

An inquest into the death was opened by Nicholas Rheinberg at Warrington Coroner's Court on 5 March 2012. The inquest was adjourned until an IPCC investigation was completed. [10]

The IPCC concluded its investigation in July 2013, finding that the intelligence gathering under Operation Shire had been 'flawed', criticising the management of the armed police team sent in to apprehend Grainger, and concluding that the officer responsible for shooting Grainger 'may have a case to answer for regarding possible manslaughter'. [11]

These results were forwarded to the Crown Prosecution Service, who have the authority to decide whether or not to pursue a case, and the coroner. Jonathan Bridge, solicitor for Grainger's family, complained that the investigation had been leaked, without being shown to the family. [12]

The CPS decided that the armed policeman who fired the shot would not be prosecuted. They decided that it would be unlikely a jury would find him guilty due to perceived threat. [13]

A CPS spokesman alleged that Greater Manchester Police failed to prepare properly for the operation, which left people at risk. Chief Constable Peter Fahy was charged under Health and Safety at Work Act as he was the corporation sole for Greater Manchester Police. The police force faced an unlimited fine if found guilty. [1] [2] [13]

However, in January 2015, William Boyce QC, at Liverpool Crown Court accepted an 'abuse of process' argument from the defence, [14] who had argued that evidence which needed to be disclosed in open court in order for the defendant (Fahy) to have a fair trial would not be in the public interest and it would prejudice future Greater Manchester Police operations.[ citation needed ]

The CPS had no choice but to accept the judge's decision and drop the case against the Greater Manchester Police.[ citation needed ]

Public inquiry

In March 2016, then-Home Secretary Theresa May announced that the inquest into Grainger's death would be converted into a statutory public inquiry with greater investigative and legal powers. [3] The public inquiry, officially opening in January 2017 with a preliminary hearing in November 2016, was led by Judge Teague, who was appointed coroner of the original inquest. The conversion from inquest to inquiry enables all relevant evidence, including confidential police documents previously deemed too sensitive, to be considered. [15]

The public inquiry issued a report in July 2019, [4] which blamed the police for the shooting and criticised the Greater Manchester force for serious deficiencies in its firearms unit.

Aftermath

The shooting was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 documentary, One Night in March, in May 2021. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

Inquests in England and Wales are held into sudden or unexplained deaths and also into the circumstances of and discovery of a certain class of valuable artefacts known as "treasure trove". In England and Wales, inquests are the responsibility of a coroner, who operates under the jurisdiction of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. In some circumstances where an inquest cannot view or hear all the evidence, it may be suspended and a public inquiry held with the consent of the Home Secretary.

"Death on the Rock" was a British television documentary, part of Thames Television's current affairs series This Week. It was broadcast in 1988. The programme examined the killing of three Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) members in Gibraltar in March 1988 by the British Special Air Service. "Death on the Rock" presented evidence that the IRA members were shot without warning or with their hands up. It was condemned by the British government and denounced in the press as sensationalist. After one of its witnesses retracted his statement, "Death on the Rock" became the first individual documentary to be the subject of an independent inquiry, in which it was largely vindicated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shooting of James Ashley</span> 1998 killing of unarmed man in UK

James Ashley was a British man who, while unarmed and naked, was shot dead by police in his flat in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, on 15 January 1998. Armed officers raided the building on the suspicion that Ashley kept a firearm and a quantity of cocaine there, and to arrest him and another man in connection with a stabbing. Neither a firearm nor a significant quantity of drugs was found, the other man was not present, and it later emerged that Ashley was not implicated in the stabbing. Ashley, likely woken by the noise of the raid, was out of bed when an armed police officer entered his bedroom. On seeing the officer, Ashley raised one arm and the officer reacted by firing a single shot. Later that morning, Sussex Police chief constable Paul Whitehouse held a press conference in which he praised the conduct of the operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culcheth</span> Village near Warrington, England

Culcheth is a village in the civil parish of Culcheth and Glazebury, Cheshire, England, six miles (10 km) north-east of Warrington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broadwater Farm riot</span> 1985 London riot

The Broadwater Farm riot occurred on the Broadwater council estate in Tottenham, North London, on 6 October 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater Manchester Police</span> English territorial police force

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Service de police de la Ville de Montréal</span> Police Service in Montreal, Canada

The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal is the municipal police agency for the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the neighbouring communities in the urban agglomeration of Montreal. With over 4,500 officers and more than 1,300 civilian staff, it is the second-largest municipal police agency in Canada after the Toronto Police Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Fahy</span>

Sir Peter Martin Fahy is a retired senior British police officer. He was the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), the United Kingdom's third largest police force. He retired from the police force on 23 October 2015 after serving for 34 years.

Azelle Rodney was a London man who was fatally injured by an armed officer of the Metropolitan Police on 30 April 2005. In July 2013, a public inquiry found that the Specialist Firearms Officer who fired the fatal shots, Anthony Long, had "no lawful justification" for killing Rodney. The case was referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to determine whether a prosecution should be launched.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes</span> 2005 wrongful fatal shooting by British police

Jean Charles da Silva e de Menezes was a Brazilian man killed by officers of the London Metropolitan Police Service at Stockwell station on the London Underground, after he was wrongly deemed to be one of the fugitives involved in the previous day's failed bombing attempts. These events took place two weeks after the London bombings of 7 July 2005, in which 52 people were killed.

Oluwashijibomi "Shiji" Lapite was a 34-year-old Nigerian asylum seeker who died in the back of a police van shortly after being detained by two officers from Stoke Newington police station in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disappearance of Tony Jones</span> Australian unsolved disappearance case

Anthony John Jones was an Australian man who disappeared while backpacking in North Queensland in November 1982. The case garnered substantial media attention, with critics charging that police mishandled the investigation into Jones' disappearance.

Paul Knapman DL was Her Majesty's coroner for Westminster, from 1980 to 2011. His responsibility for investigating sudden deaths as an independent judicial officer saw him preside over numerous notable cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Mark Duggan</span> British black man shot and killed by police in 2011

Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black British man, was shot dead by police in Tottenham, North London on 4 August 2011. The Metropolitan Police stated that officers were attempting to arrest Duggan on suspicion of planning an attack and that he was in possession of a handgun. Duggan died from a gunshot wound to the chest. The circumstances of Duggan's death resulted in public protests in Tottenham, which led to conflict with police and escalated into riots across London and other English cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Jordan Begley</span>

Jordan Lee Begley, also known as Jordon Begley, a 23-year-old English man, died of cardiac arrest on 10 July 2013. An inquest in 2015 found that Begley's death had been partly due to the actions of Greater Manchester Police officers who shot him with a Taser while they restrained and handcuffed him around two hours prior to his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deaths at Deepcut army barracks</span> A series of deaths at a British Army camp in Surrey, England

The Deaths at Deepcut Barracks is a series of incidents that took place involving the deaths in obscure circumstances of five British Army trainee soldiers at the Princess Royal Barracks, Deepcut in the county of Surrey, between 1995 and 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Shukri Abdi</span> 2019 drowning of a child in England

Shukri Yahye-Abdi drowned in the River Irwell, England, on 27 June 2019. Aged 12, she was a refugee from Somalia who had lived in a refugee camp in Kenya until moving to England in 2017. She was with pupils from her school, Broad Oak High School, at the time of her death. Subsequent to her death, police reported there were no suspicious circumstances; however, Abdi's mother reported conflicting information and said that she had been complaining to her daughter's school about incidents of bullying for over a year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Mark Saunders</span> 2008 shooting death in London

Mark Saunders was a British barrister who was shot dead by police on 6 May 2008 after a five-hour siege at his home in Markham Square in Chelsea, London. Saunders was a successful divorce lawyer who struggled with depression and alcoholism. He had been behaving erratically and drinking heavily in the hours before the incident. Neighbours called the police after Saunders repeatedly fired a shotgun from a window shortly before 17:00. When armed police officers arrived, Saunders fired at their vehicle and the siege began. More armed officers arrived and took up positions in surrounding buildings and on the street. Saunders fired on two more occasions and the police returned fire, slightly wounding him. Around 20 minutes after the previous round of shooting, just after 21:30, Saunders waved the shotgun out of a window. As he lowered it in the direction of a group of police officers, seven officers fired eleven shots, of which at least five struck him. Police entered his flat minutes later and Saunders was taken to a waiting ambulance where he was pronounced dead.

References

  1. 1 2 "Greater Manchester Police chief faces shooting charges". BBC News. 16 January 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  2. 1 2 Evans, Martin (16 January 2014). "Chief Constable faces health and safety charge over fatal shooting". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Public inquiry ordered into police killing of Anthony Grainger". The Guardian. 17 March 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Anthony Grainger inquiry: police to blame for fatal shooting". The Guardian. 11 July 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  5. ↑ Grainger Inquiry (see para 2.38), webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Accessed 12 January 2023.
  6. ↑ "Anthony Grainger shot by police in Warrington quizzed over stolen memory stick - Manchester Evening News". 29 April 2013.
  7. ↑ "Public inquiry announced into fatal shooting in Culcheth by Greater Manchester Police". Warrington Guardian. 17 March 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  8. ↑ Keeling, Neal (24 October 2013). "Anthony Grainger shooting: Watchdog slams police over killing of unarmed Salford dad". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  9. ↑ "Three cleared over robbery plot". ITV. 22 September 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  10. ↑ Keaven, Paul (5 March 2012). "Police shooting death inquest opens" . Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  11. ↑ "Anthony Grainger - Greater Manchester Police". Independent Police Complaints Commission. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  12. ↑ Newey, Miranda (24 October 2013). "Solicitor's anger at police after confidential Anthony Grainger shooting report is 'leaked'". The Bolton News. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  13. 1 2 Withnall, Adam (16 January 2014). "Great Manchester Police chief Sir Peter Fahy to face charges over Anthony Grainger shooting". The Independent. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  14. ↑ "CPS: Unable to reveal material for 'public interest' reasons". ITV. 16 January 2015. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  15. ↑ "Anthony Grainger death: inquiry into police shooting of Bolton dad to hear evidence from January". The Bolton News. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  16. ↑ "One Night in March". One Night in March. 4 May 2021. BBC. BBC Radio 4 . Retrieved 4 May 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.