This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-28248588
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Police blamed over 1985 shooting | Police blamed over 1985 shooting |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Police failures contributed to Dorothy "Cherry" Groce's death, whose shooting triggered the 1985 Brixton riots, a jury inquest has found. | Police failures contributed to Dorothy "Cherry" Groce's death, whose shooting triggered the 1985 Brixton riots, a jury inquest has found. |
| Mrs Groce was shot by police looking for her son Michael and paralysed from the waist down. She died of kidney failure in 2011. | |
| The jury at Southwark Coroner's Court found police failed to communicate properly and adequately check who was living at the property before the raid. | |
| Her son was never charged. | |
| The inquest heard that during the raid in the early hours of 28 September 1985 there were four children at the property. | |
| Fragments in spine | |
| The mother-of-eight died 26 years after the shooting in 2011 at the age of 63, from an illness which a pathologist directly linked to the gunshot injury. | |
| Dr Robert Chapman said that during a post-mortem examination he found small metal fragments from the bullet still lodged in the base of her spine. | |
| Mrs Groce had also became more susceptible to a host of debilitating illnesses as a result of the injury, the court heard. | |
| Her shooting by Metropolitan Police Inspector Douglas Lovelock sparked two days of unrest in Brixton during which shops were looted and petrol bombs thrown. | |
| 'Police shouted' | |
| Mr Lovelock, who admitted being responsible for the wound, told the inquest he had apprehensions about going on the job and said he felt shocked when he mistakenly shot her. | |
| He told the court that after shooting her he thought: "I hope to Christ it is shock and I have missed." | |
| In a statement taken after the shooting and read to the jury, Mrs Groce said that as she lay bleeding, police continued to shout at her. | |
| They asked her if she knew where Michael was, as they were searching for him in connection with an armed robbery. | |
| Mr Lovelock stood trial in 1987 charged with inflicting unlawful and malicious grievous bodily harm and was acquitted. |