It's almost three years since Salford man Anthony Grainger was shot dead by an officer from Greater Manchester Police in a car park in Culcheth but still no-one has been charged with his killing.
Exactly a year ago the Crown Prosecution Service stated that the officer who shot Grainger would not face criminal prosecution and that, instead, GMP Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy would be charged merely under the Health and Safety at Work Act (see previous Salford Star article for full background click here)
Today even that trial collapsed, apparently because the jury would not have `full disclosure' of information and Fahy wouldn't have a fair trial.
A statement put out this afternoon on behalf of the family by Farleys Solicitors called for a Public Inquiry...
"The family of Anthony are hugely disappointed at the decision not to proceed with the prosecution of Sir Peter Fahy" it reads "They have waited three years for this trial. During that period the Inquest has not been able to progress and they now find that they are no nearer to the truth. They simply want answers.
"The matter must now proceed to a public inquiry. If a jury in a criminal court can not deal with the case the family would question how a jury in an Inquest could consider the evidence and we will be petitioning the Home Secretary in this regard next week."
Greater Manchester's Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd also put out a statement in sympathy with the Grainger family...
"I have enormous sympathy for the family of Anthony Grainger as we are now three years on from his death and they are really no closer to finding out what happened to him" he said "They will be rightly disappointed by the collapse of this case.
"The family and the wider public deserve to know what took place during the police operation that led to Anthony Grainger's death" he added "I can only now urge that the coronial process is expedited to bring these issues to a conclusion as quickly as possible so the family can finally have the answers they seek. It cannot be right for anyone involved and that includes the police officers involved in the operation that we are three years on and there is still a significant amount of time to go before it comes to an end. This does not serve the public interest.
"I do not believe that it was ever right to spend the best part of a year pursuing the truth by using health and safety legislation" he explained "Health and safety laws are in place, rightly, to protect workers and the public in the workplace. They are not intended to sit in judgement on policing operations such as these, as the collapse of this case has shown.
"Central Government must review this case to ensure the proper lessons are learnt" he added "We cannot have years go by in tragic cases like this before proper conclusions can be drawn. We cannot have major matters of public policy being determined by health and safety legislation that was not drawn up with this kind of case in mind. I will be raising this directly with the Home Secretary."
Wes Ahmed, who has led the Justice4Grainger campaign, put it more bluntly on Facebook this afternoon... "Welcome to corporate Britain where the police officers can kill you at will and they will always get off scot-free...No justice, no peace JUST US..."
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