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UK: Metropolitan Police try to escape liability for shooting and death of Cherry Groce despite admitting "irreparable harm"

24 May 2016

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"The Metropolitan Police Commissioner is to argue that the family of Cherry Groce should not be permitted to pursue any claim against him for the irreparable harm caused to them as a result of the raid by armed police officers on their family home in 1985.

Mrs Groce was shot and seriously injured in front of her young children during the 1985 raid, and she died 26 years later in 2011 as a result of those injuries. In July 2014, an inquest jury found that the shooting – and her death – was the result of serious and multiple police failures on the part of officers across the ranks.

In the wake of the inquest, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner offered a personal apology for those failures. He said:

(...)

“Today, I apologise unreservedly for our failings... we, as an organisation, failed to meet those responsibilities and in doing so caused irreparable damage to a mother and her family.”

Notwithstanding that apology, the Commissioner is now seeking to avoid liability for the admitted irreparable damage caused to this family.

The hearing of his attempt to do so is due to take place before Mr Justice Jay at the High Court in the Royal Courts of Justice, London, commencing at 10.30am on Tuesday 24 May 2016."

See: Press release from Bhatt Murphy solicitors: Met Police seek to avoid liability to Cherry Groce's family for 1985 shooting (pdf)

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