The Daily Mail, Stephen Wright, 9/3/2008

Scotland Yard is fighting a legal battle to avoid disclosing whether the officers who killed Jean Charles de Menezes had opened fire in public before.

The force claims that revealing the information would "endanger the physical and mental health" of the two marksmen.

Officers said such a move might also prejudice the forthcoming inquest into the Brazilian's death.

The Daily Mail submitted a series of Freedom of Information Act questions to the Metropolitan Police Service over the Stockwell shooting.

The request followed speculation that one of the marksmen had killed on duty before.

This newspaper also sought information about the involvement of the armed forces in police operations on July 22, 2005. Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot dead that day by firearms officers who mistook him for a terrorist suspect while hunting for four London transport bombers.

The Met said details about the military were protected on national security grounds.

It said information about the methods of specialist police teams could prejudice the force's relationship with "external organisations".

It is a matter of public record, however, that a member of the armed forces was attached to each of two surveillance teams stationed outside Mr de Menezes's South London home before he was shot.

Lawyers acting for the Mail have appealed against the Met's decision, saying the release of the requested information is clearly in the public interest and would not prejudice the inquest.

Yard insiders believe the hearing, due to start in September, is likely to result in a wave of bad publicity for the force. They fear the Met will face allegations of a shooting culture inside the CO19 firearms squad.

At the inquest, the marksmen who killed Mr de Menezes are expected to be questioned in public for the first time about events leading to the Stockwell shooting.

One of them killed an armed robber within weeks of returning to frontline duties in November 2006.

The shooting of Mr de Menezes has been the subject of a full investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The watchdog's 170-page report, made public last year, made no reference to the marksmen's shooting histories-apart from revealing they have a combined 30 years of experience. The shooting was further investigated when health and safety charges were brought against the Met last year.

The force was convicted of catastrophic errors in the run-up to the incident and fined £175,000.

No individual police officers have been charged.

Keith Mathieson, a lawyer acting for the Mail, says in his legal submission to the Met that its refusal to release information about the marksmen's shooting histories "raises very grave concerns" about whether the Met provided the IPCC with all necessary information.

A retired High Court judge, Sir Michael Wright QC, will oversee the de Menezes inquest which is expected to last three months.

The evidence is likely to increase pressure on Met chief Sir Ian Blair, who faced calls to step down last November after he was accused of breaking the law in the wake of the Tube station shooting.