Inquest into police killing of Mark Duggan sabotaged
A public inquest into the killing of Mark Duggan by Metropolitan police officers from the CO19 firearms unit is in doubt after the extraordinary intervention of the Independent Police Complaints Authority IPCC).
The IPCC is meant to investigate police complaints and police conduct and has a long record of wilful failure to prosecute abuses. But even by the IPCC’s own standards, its latest actions are extraordinary.
Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four, was unarmed when he was killed by a bullet to the chest after the taxi he was travelling in was stopped by armed police in Tottenham, north London, on August 4. His killing was the spark for major civil disturbances across England. At a pre-inquest review at North London coroners court, the IPCC, represented by QC Mark Ley-Morgan, said evidence about police decision-making on the day was too sensitive to be disclosed at a public inquest.
After the killing of Duggan, the local police did not see fit to even inform the family of his death. During an earlier preview inquest, lawyer Mike Mansfield said the Duggan family had not been told of the bullet’s trajectory or given an interim pathologist’s report. In his experience, he had never come across a situation where a family had not received the pathology report within a month of the death of a family member.