Anthony Grainger was shot and killed by an armed

Greater Manchester Police Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England. , Greater Manchester Police employed 6,866 police officers, 3,524 memb ...

officer in

Culcheth Culcheth is a village in the Borough of Warrington, ceremonial county of Cheshire and historic county of Lancashire, England, six miles (10 km) north-east of Warrington town centre; it is the principal settlement in Culcheth and Glazebury ci ...

, Cheshire, England, on 3 March 2012. At the time, Grainger was unarmed. In January 2014, the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...

announced that they would be prosecuting Chief Constable

Peter Fahy Sir Peter Martin Fahy (born 18 January 1959 in London, England) is a retired senior British police officer. He was the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), the United Kingdom's third largest police force. He retired from the pol ...

under health and safety legislation over the shooting, and a full public inquiry into Grainger's death was concluded in July 2019, blaming the police. The Report found that Grainger was a career criminal who posed a potential threat to the police.

Background

In September 2011, Grainger had been arrested and questioned regarding the suspected theft from a police officer of a memory stick containing unencrypted details of 1,075 police informants. Grainger was formally cleared in early January 2012 after police found no evidence connecting him to the memory stick. Despite this, several days after officially clearing him of suspicion, Greater Manchester Police launched Operation Shire, a covert surveillance operation monitoring Grainger and two associates.

Death

Grainger was shot in the chest whilst sitting in a stolen Audi with two other occupants. An armed policeman fired a single shot from a

Heckler & Koch MP5 The Heckler & Koch MP5 (german: Maschinenpistole 5) is a 9x19mm Parabellum submachine gun, developed in the 1960s by a team of engineers from the German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch. There are over 100 variants and clones of the MP5, ...

semi-automatic carbine. The bullet went through the windscreen, and entered Grainger's heart and both his lungs. The other two occupants, along with a third person, were tried and cleared of plotting a robbery.

Investigation

inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a coro ...

into the death was opened by Nicholas Rheinberg at

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

Coroner's Court on 5 March 2012. The inquest was

adjourned In parliamentary procedure, an adjournment ends a meeting. It could be done using a motion to adjourn. A time for another meeting could be set using the motion to fix the time to which to adjourn. This motion establishes an adjourned meeting. ...

until an

IPCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) a ...

investigation was completed. The IPCC concluded its investigation in July 2013, finding that the intelligence gathering under Operation Shire had been 'flawed', criticising the management of the armed police team sent in to apprehend Grainger, and concluding that the officer responsible for shooting Grainger 'may have a case to answer for regarding possible manslaughter'. These results were forwarded to the

, who have the authority to decide whether or not to pursue a case, and the coroner. Jonathan Bridge, solicitor for Grainger's family, complained that the investigation had been leaked, without being shown to the family. The CPS decided that the armed policeman who fired the shot would not be prosecuted. They decided that it would be unlikely a jury would find him guilty due to perceived threat. A CPS spokesman alleged that

failed to prepare properly for the operation, which left people at risk. Chief Constable

was charged under

Health and Safety at Work Act The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974c 37 (abbreviated to "HSWA 1974", "HASWA" or "HASAWA") is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that defines the fundamental structure and authority for the encouragement, regulation and enfor ...

as he was the

corporation sole A corporation sole is a legal entity consisting of a single ("sole") incorporated office, occupied by a single ("sole") natural person.

for Greater Manchester Police. The police force faced an unlimited fine if found guilty. However, in January 2015, William Boyce QC, at

Liverpool Crown Court The Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts, in Derby Square, Liverpool, are operated by His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service. The building is used by the Crown Court, the Magistrates' Court, Liverpool District Probate Registry and the Liverpool Yout ...

accepted an '

abuse of process An abuse of process is the unjustified or unreasonable use of legal proceedings or process to further a cause of action by an applicant or plaintiff in an action. It is a claim made by the respondent or defendant that the other party is misusing ...

' argument from the defence, who had argued that evidence which needed to be disclosed in open court in order for the defendant (Fahy) to have a fair trial would not be in the public interest and it would prejudice future Greater Manchester Police operations. The CPS had no choice but to accept the judge's decision and drop the case against the Greater Manchester Police.

Public inquiry

In March 2016, then-Home Secretary

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...

announced that the inquest into Grainger's death would be converted into a statutory public inquiry with greater investigative and legal powers. The public inquiry, officially opening in January 2017 with a preliminary hearing in November 2016, was led by Judge Teague, who was appointed coroner of the original inquest. The conversion from inquest to inquiry enables all relevant evidence, including confidential police documents previously deemed too sensitive, to be considered. The public inquiry issued a report in July 2019, which blamed the police for the shooting and criticised the Greater Manchester force for serious deficiencies in its firearms unit. Anthony Grainger's family have been represented by Jonathan Bridge and David Corrigan of Farleys Solicitors throughout the legal proceedings.

Aftermath

The shooting was the subject of a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

documentary, ''One Night in March'', in May 2021.

References