UK police officer sobs in court at wrongful killing

LONDON - The head of a British police firearms team that shot dead an innocent Brazilian after mistaking him for a suicide bomber sobbed in a London court on Tuesday as he defended his squad's actions.

Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, an electrician, was shot seven times in the head on a stationary underground train in south London in July 2005 by officers who had wrongly identified him as one of four men who had tried to attack the London transport system the day before.

The senior officer, identified only as "Ralph" to protect his identity, told the court he remained proud of his team even though it had killed an innocent man.

"Ralph", in charge of the crack CO19 police firearms team, said team members thought they were risking their lives to prevent another suicide bombing.

"We were going forward to deal with this in order to protect the public, even though this man could have had a device on him," said the officer, testifying from behind a screen.

Asked what he thought about being called by the prosecution as a witness, "Ralph" started sobbing.

The judge said: "I think the response speaks for itself."

The officer, who was passed a box of paper tissues, added: "Despite the outcome, I was very proud of them (the officers)."

The botched suicide bombings -- just two weeks after four young British Islamists killed themselves and 52 people on three underground trains and a bus in the capital's worst peacetime attack -- had sparked a frantic manhunt.

De Menezes coincidentally lived in the same block of flats as Hussein Osman, one of four men jailed earlier this year for plotting the unsuccessful July 21 attacks.

Prosecutors have described the shooting as a "shocking and catastrophic error".

No individual police officer is being prosecuted but the London police force as a whole has been charged with breaking health and safety laws over the killing.It denies the charge.