UK: Officer faces murder charge over Hastings raid
01 March 1999
Firearms officer PC Chris Sherwood has been charged with murder and manslaughter after shooting dead an unarmed man during a raid in January last year. Three of his superiors and another PC also face criminal charges. In an investigation which called into question the conduct of the highest echelons of the Sussex force, the chief constable and his deputy were also suspended with the latter to face disciplinary proceedings. However, a number of questions remain unanswered.
James Ashley was in bed with his girlfriend, naked and unarmed, when thirty officers raided his Hastings flat at 4am. As Mr Ashley stood up he was shot in the chest and died instantly. At a press conference after the raid, Sussex chief constable Paul Whitehouse said that he was "satisfied that the operation was properly and professionally planned [and] that the use of firearms was justified". He said that the victim was a dangerous man wanted in connection with cocaine trafficking and an attempted murder, and had no doubt that the decision to launch the armed raid was right. In fact intelligence reports were wildly inaccurate and it soon emerged that the attempted murder in question had been prevented, rather than perpetrated, by Mr Ashley (see Statewatch vol 8, no 3, 4 & 5).
A Police Complaints Authority (PCA) investigation into the shooting was conducted by Kent police and five officers from the raid were immediately suspended. April's news of Sherwood's murder charge was accompanied by charges of misfeasance in public office for superintendent Christopher Burton, acting detective chief inspector Kevin French, detective inspector Christopher Siggs and PC Robert Shoesmith. The grounds of the charges relating to each individual are not yet known; misfeasance charges cover misconduct, neglect of duty or abuse of power. The four are to appear at Bow Street magistrates on May 21.
In late July last year a second PCA investigation was launched into the conduct of the chief constable and his senior colleagues. The report is said to allege that the chief constable had been informed that serious mistakes had been made during the raid and that he had then deliberately misled the public by going on television to praise his officers. In early March came the announcement that Whitehouse and his deputy, Mark Jordan, were to be suspended. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has since advised that there is insufficient evidence for any criminal charges to be brought against the two, and Mr Whitehouse is to return to work after receiving "strong written advice" from Sussex Police Authority. Jordan is to face disciplinary charges at an independent tribunal. If he is found guilty he may be dismissed, required to resign or reprimanded. Assistant chief constable (ACC) Nigel Yeo has also received written advice concerning his conduct, while another ACC, Maria Wallace, has been cleared.
The advice given to Paul Whitehouse and his assistant is to remain confidential. In the week when new regulations on transparency in police disciplinary proceedings came into force, Sussex Police Authority announced that it was in the public interest to keep secret what the highest ranking officer in the force had been found guilty of and how he had been reprimanded. Equally disturbing is that a raid, described as "flawed and shambolic" by Kent's chief constable, was launched on apparently false and misleading intelligence leading to the death of an unarmed man. Few questions have been asked about police methods relating to the acquisition of such information, and the decision-making processes that led to the operation being carried out. One can only hope that the forthcoming criminal proceedings will shed some light on the planning and conduct of the raid, providing a degree of the transparency implicit in the concept of accountability.
James Ashley's girlfriend, who suffered a breakdown following the raid, is suing Paul Whitehouse claiming "trauma, shock and distress", w