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Family of shot barrister in legal battle

by Rachel Leslie
16/ 7/2008

THE family of the Alderley Edge born barrister shot dead by police in London have launched a landmark legal battle over the way officers are alleged to have collaborated on their account of the killing.

Mark Saunders, 32, was killed by police marksmen on May 6 at the Chelsea flat he shared with his wife.

His younger sister Charlotte, 26, has applied for a judicial review at the High Court into the manner in which the investigation has been handled.

It is alleged officers involved in the case had up to a month to write up their account of events, having conferred and debriefed together, before submitting them to an independent inquiry and that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) failed to disclose sufficient information about the investigation to the family.

Although it is standard police policy in England and Wales that officers pool their recollections in this way following a fatal incident, the Saunders family, who feel the gun siege could have been resolved peacefully, are fighting the practice on the grounds that it breaches European Human Rights laws. They have hired a top civil rights lawyer to fight their case.

If successful, it could lead to a series of appeals over police shootings, including the mistaken killing of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005.

Former King’s School pupil Mr Saunders, a barrister at the prestigious QEB chambers in London and former member of the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC), was killed after firing a shotgun from the windows of his flat.

Nine officers - eight from the Metropolitan Police’s specialist firearms unit CO19 and a ninth from the diplomatic protection unit - opened fire and Mr Saunders was shot five times and died at the scene from his injuries. Senior police sources at the time said the marksmen had been left with no alternative.

The Saunders family of Brook Lane, Alderley Edge, have questioned why the stand-off could not have been resolved peacefully and have also complained directly to the IPCC.

Mrs Saunders said: "We want to see justice for our son and for a brother."

The initial hearing takes place at the High Court this Friday, July 18.