The trial of the Chief Constable of Manchester, Sir Peter Fahy, over the death of Anthony Grainger, has collapsed after the judge accepted an ‘abuse of process’ argument from his defence team.

The thirty six year old from Lower Broughton, was shot through the chest as he sat in a car in the village of Culcheth, Cheshire, on the evening of 3rd March 2012.

An officer from the force fired through the car’s front window, and police threw a CS gas canister into the vehicle. They shot out its tyres in an operation that caused onlookers to scream in terror. No firearms were found in the car, on Grainger, nor at any address linked to him.

A police source said officers had been tracking the car for some time in the belief that those inside were about to carry out a robbery.

Last year it was announced by the CPS that the marksman who shot dead the unarmed man would not be prosecuted but that the Greater Manchester Police force would be charged under health and safety law

Sir Peter Fahy had claimed that he could not get a fair trial because some of the evidence the court was to rely upon was ‘secret’. In the end the prosecution chose to offer no evidence and the case was dismissed.

Commenting on the verdict, Deputy Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, said:

“It is now nearly three years since the death of Anthony Grainger during an armed policing operation by Greater Manchester Police Officers investigating individuals suspected of being involved in serious criminality. The family of Mr Grainger deserve to understand the events that led to Anthony’s death on that Saturday evening in 2012.

“The Coronial process is still to conclude and as such Greater Manchester Police are unable to comment any further on Mr Grainger’s death. The Force recognises that will be frustrating for many people, but it is important to respect the integrity of the Coronial process so that the full facts can be established without any prejudice.

“Greater Manchester Police wishes to extend its sympathy to Anthony Grainger’s family who will no doubt be hugely disappointed with the events of today. Today’s decision only reinforces the necessity for a different and more timely process of enquiry into these types of incidents.”

Meanwhile Manchester Police commissioner said:

I have enormous sympathy for the family of Anthony Grainger as we are now three years on from his death and they are really no closer to finding out what happened to him. They will be rightly disappointed by the collapse of this case.

However he added that he did not believe that it was ever right to spend the best part of a year pursuing the truth by using health and safety legislation.

“Health and safety laws are in place, rightly, to protect workers and the public in the workplace. They are not intended to sit in judgement on policing operations such as these, as the collapse of this case has shown.”

“Central Government must review this case to ensure the proper lessons are learnt. We cannot have years go by in tragic cases like this before proper conclusions can be drawn. We cannot have major matters of public policy being determined by health and safety legislation that was not drawn up with this kind of case in mind. I will be raising this directly with the Home Secretary.”

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