Two police officers arrested on suspicion of murder for a 1999 shooting of a man they thought was Irish and armed will not now face any charges, the British Crown Prosecution Service announced today.
Harry Stanley (46), a painter and decorator, was shot twice as he walked home from a London pub after they claimed he pointed a plastic bag containing a table leg at the two officers.
Chief Insp Neil Sharman and Police Constable Kevin Fagan had been arrested by Surrey police in June on suspicion of murder, gross negligence, manslaughter, perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
A customer, mistaking Mr Stanley's accent for Irish rather than Scottish and noticing that he was carrying something long in a bag, telephoned the police to say that a man with an Irish accent was leaving the pub with a sawn-off shot gun in a plastic bag.
An inquest jury had returned a verdict of unlawful killing in the case in October 2004, but the officers were arrested after new forensic evidence was discovered during a review of the case.
The CPS said the evidence - two bullet holes to the top left shoulder of the jacket that Stanley was wearing - appeared to indicate that he may have been shot as he began to turn towards the officers, in contradiction to their statements.
However, independent forensic evidence backing the officers' case was sent to the CPS in mid-September.
The CPS said after consulting other forensic experts that it had concluded that "the prosecution evidence is insufficient to rebut the officers' assertion that they were acting in self defence.
It said it had also decided there was insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of a conviction in the other charges considered against the officers.