Police witnesses in firearms trial get anonymity
Seven officers have been granted anonymity as witnesses in the trial of a man accused of passing an illegal firearm to Mark Duggan before he was shot dead by police in Tottenham almost a year ago.
The officers involved are from the Metropolitan police surveillance and firearms unit.
Thirty-year-old Kevin Hutchinson-Foster denies a charge of “selling or transferring a prohibited firearm” to Mark Duggan last year between 28 July and 5 August. Judge Radford, in granting the anonymity order, said there were reasonable fears based on intelligence evidence for the officers’ wellbeing if they were identified.
Mark Duggan’s shooting sparked riots across London last year which then spread all over the country.
Mr Hutchinson-Foster will face trial on the charge in September.
A gun, which was wrapped in a sock, was found at the scene of the shooting. Mark Duggan’s DNA was not on the gun – but his fingerprints were found on a box that had contained it.
He was killed by a single gunshot wound to the chest, and received a second gunshot wound to his right arm.
Today was also the deadline set by the coroner overseeing the inquest for the Independent Police Complaints Commission to hand over details of its investigation into Mr Duggan’s fatal shooting. The IPCC was warned that it risked being in contempt of court if it failed to meet the deadline.
The IPCC told Channel 4 News: “There has been an ongoing dialogue between the IPCC and Mr Walker, the Coroner. Mr Walker attended the IPCC’s London office earlier this week, to view some of the footage in the IPCC’s possession, and also met the Commissioner overseeing the case, Rachel Cerfontyne.”
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