Menezes coroner to sum up

8:48am Tuesday 2nd December 2008

A coroner leading the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes is due to begin summing up evidence for the jury.

Former High Court judge Sir Michael Wright is tasked with bringing together the final account of how the innocent Brazilian met his death on a south London Tube train.

It is the last stage before the 11-person jury, which has sat since September 22, is sent out to consider its verdicts.

Jurors heard from 100 witnesses, including the two men who shot dead the innocent Brazilian at point-blank range on a carriage at Stockwell station on July 22 2005.

For the first time, the public was given a full account of the incident from key witnesses on board the Underground carriage where the shooting took place.

Key controversies involving surveillance outside his Tulse Hill home, incidents in the control room at New Scotland Yard and Mr de Menezes's journey towards Stockwell were also examined at length.

C2 and C12, the two firearms officers who shot the electrician, both choked back tears as they appeared in the unlikely surroundings of Surrey County Cricket Club's home ground, in south London.

The shooting came two weeks after London was rocked by the July 7 bombings that left 52 victims dead.

On July 21 a second gang of Islamist extremists attempted to murder dozens more with home-made rucksack bombs. As counter terrorist police scoured the capital for the escaped would-be suicide bombers, Mr de Menezes was mistaken for one of them and shot dead.

Sir Michael is expected to use two days taking the jury back through the key evidence heard at the Oval cricket ground, south London.