The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is under fire from politicians and the police after a jury took just three hours to find a “hero” officer not guilty of the murder of a man shot dead in south London.
Sergeant Martyn Blake was cleared over the killing of 24-year-old Chris Kaba, who was shot in the head while trying to ram his way out of a police roadblock in September 2022.
Prosecutors decided to charge the 40-year-old, highly experienced firearms officer following a lengthy investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
But the jury rejected the suggestion the officer had no lawful justification for pulling the trigger after he described how he genuinely believed one of his colleagues would be killed when Mr Kaba drove his two-tonne Audi Q8 vehicle towards them.
Following Sgt Blake’s acquittal at the Old Bailey, Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, said he feared charging the police in such situations was “crushing the spirit of good officers” and was making London less safe.
Sir Mark said Sgt Blake had “paid a huge personal and professional sacrifice” over the past two years but had acted with “professionalism and dignity throughout”.
In a strongly worded statement, he went on: “No police officer is above the law, but we have been clear the system holding police to account is broken.
“I worry about the lack of support officers face for doing their best, but most of all I worry for the public.
“The more we crush the spirit of good officers, the less they can fight crime. That risks London becoming less safe.”
Robert Jenrick, one of the two MPs vying to become Tory leader, described Mr Blake as a “hero” and said the decision to prosecute him was wrong.
He said: “Martyn Blake, the firearms officer cleared today, was a hero who found himself fearing for his life and the life of his colleagues.
“His prosecution was wrong and endangered the public. The ordeal he has gone through, unthinkable. We must back our brave police officers, and not drag them through the courts for making split-second decisions.”
Credit: Independent Office for Police Conduct
Despite having been cleared by the criminal courts, Sgt Blake could still face the sack if the IOPC seeks a gross misconduct finding against him.
Dame Priti Patel, the former home secretary who resigned on Sept 5 2022, hours before the shooting, said there were huge questions for the CPS over why it had pursued the case.
She said: “This police officer has been through a traumatic ordeal, and the case has had a huge reputational impact on his career and on the force at large.
“There are important questions for the CPS to answer over the evidence base they had and their reasons for pursuing it. There needs to be transparency and accountability. We need public confidence in our institutions.”
Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, who is head of the CPS, was appointed last year and has previously praised the Black Lives Matter movement.
In a statement defending the decision to charge Sgt Blake, Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS special crime and counter-terrorism division, said his thoughts were with the family of Mr Kaba.
He said: “This has been a complex and sensitive case and the decision to prosecute was made after an in-depth consideration of all the available evidence.
“We recognise that firearms officers operate under enormous pressure, but it is our responsibility to put cases before a jury that meet our test for prosecution, and we are satisfied that test was met in this case.
“It is therefore right that the case was put before the jury for them to scrutinise and to decide.”
Following the decision to charge Sgt Blake with murder, hundreds of his armed colleagues handed in their weapons in protest.
As a result, Suella Braverman, the then Home Secretary, launched an accountability review into the police use of force.
But recommendations announced in March this year, including a review of the threshold for when cases are sent to the CPS, were met with a lukewarm response from senior officers, who have demanded more is done to back frontline officers when they use necessary force.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, pledged to work with the police to increase confidence among serving officers.
She said: “Criminal prosecutions brought against police officers for actions taken in the course of their duties are extremely rare. Each day, police officers across the country work hard with bravery and integrity to keep the public safe.
“The British tradition of policing by consent relies on mutual bonds of trust between the public and the police.
“It is important both that the police have the confidence of communities they serve and that officers have the support and confidence they need to do the difficult job of keeping us safe. The Government is committed to working with policing to strengthen confidence for the future.”
David Spencer, head of crime and justice at Policy Exchange and a former senior Met Police officer, said it spoke volumes that the jury took just three hours to return its verdict.
He said: “Police firearms officers in England and Wales were deployed on 17,589 operations for the year to March 2024 – they intentionally discharged their firearms only twice.
“This case, like the massive fall in stop and search, shows the systems for holding officers to account are preventing police officers from doing their job – something that is to the detriment of the law-abiding majority of people in this country and benefits only the criminal minority.”
However, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, where the shooting took place, defended the CPS’s decision to charge Sgt Blake.
She said: “Whilst police officers undeniably have a difficult job and work under exceptional pressures, this trial shows nobody is above the law.
“The fatal shooting of Chris Kaba caused considerable fear, anger and pain not only in our community but in communities across London.
“Trust and confidence in policing has long been a problem in London, particularly within the black community. We need urgent efforts to rebuild trust between police and communities.”
Leave a Comment