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De Menezes pic 'manipulated'
17/10/2007 19:08 - (SA)
London - A British court heard a claim on Wednesday that a composite photograph designed to show the problems police faced distinguishing an innocent Brazilian shot dead by officers from a would-be bomber was altered.
Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead at a London Underground train station in July 2005 when the capital was in a state of high tension two weeks after four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 others on the transport network.
Another attempted attack was foiled the day before de Menezes, 27, was shot in south London after police mistook him for one of the plotters, Hussain Osman.
London's Metropolitan Police force is on trial over alleged health and safety breaches surrounding de Menezes' death.
Lawyers for the police had produced a composite image of de Menezes and Osman, featuring half of each man's face merged together to make a whole.
But prosecution lawyer Clare Montgomery, who has accused police of a series of blunders, told the court it had been altered "by either stretching or re-sizing so the face ceases to have its correct proportions".
Giving evidence as a witness, forensics consultant Michael George told jurors that the picture of de Menezes used by the police seemed to have been brightened and lost definition compared to the original.
- AFP
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