Cliff Notes – “Russell Tovey plays me in Jean Charles de Menezes series it was traumatising to watch”
- The new Disney Plus drama “Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes” highlights the tragic 2005 police shooting of the innocent electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, amid a failed anti-terror operation.
- Former Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick, portrayed by Russell Tovey, expressed deep emotional distress after watching the series, reflecting on the police’s smear campaign against De Menezes.
- Despite a sustained campaign for accountability, the Metropolitan Police were only fined for breaching health and safety laws, with no officers prosecuted for the shooting.
Russell Tovey plays me in Jean Charles de Menezes series– it was traumatising to watch
On July 22 2005, two weeks after the 7/7 bombings, Jean Charles de Menezes was fatally shot by police officers as he sat on a London underground tube train on his way to work.
Today, 20 years later, Disney Plus has released a new drama called Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, starring Edison Alcaide as De Menezes. Ahead of its release, Metro brought together actor Russell Tovey and Brian Paddick, the real-life former senior police officer he plays in the series.
Two decades ago the entirely innocent De Menezes was being tracked as part of an investigation into another terrorist cell that sought to emulate the 7/7 attacks, but ultimately failed as their explosives didn’t fully detonate.
However, in a bungled surveillance operation, the police misidentified the 27-year-old – who worked as an electrician – and shot him seven times in the head at point-blank range.
At the time, the Metropolitan Police put out statements suggesting that De Menezes, a Brazilian national, leapt over ticket barriers at Stockwell station while wearing ‘bulky’ clothing that could have been concealing a bomb.
It later emerged that none of this was true and that members of the public had mistaken police officers running into the station for De Menezes.
However, despite a sustained campaign to uncover the truth, the police were only ever found guilty breaching health and safety laws and were fined £175,000 for putting a member of the public at risk.
Paddick was a Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the time of the shooting, and was appalled by what he saw as the subsequent campaign by the Met to smear De Menezes’ character.
He said: ‘It’s like we were saying “sorry we killed you, but it is your own fault”.’
Paddick famously challenged Met commissioner Sir Ian Blair over how soon senior officers knew that the wrong man had been shot.
When Blair refuted this, Paddick was reassigned to other duties and ultimately felt forced to retire from the police in 2007.
Paddick shared how emotional it was for him to recently watch the four-part Disney Plus miniseries Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes.
‘I sat down in a room on my own and I watched all four episodes back to back… I was traumatised,’ he told Metro.
‘But it was great to see the truth portrayed on screen, and it was fantastic to have Russell play me in this series.’
He continued: ‘What happened at the time was I got really angry and I got really angry for a long period of time, and that led to clinical depression.’
While Paddick found it hard to watch, he said ‘it’s a credit to the way that the drama is done that it has that impact on you’.
Paddick speculated about how the Met will respond to the series, stressing: ‘There were a whole series of mistakes that occurred at the time of De Menezes’ death.’
But, he said he is unsure if the Met ‘will admit that mistakes were made’ as ‘potentially, there was no one particular individual who is to be blamed’.
Timeline of Jean Charles de Menezes death
- 22 July 2005 Jean Charles de Menezes shot dead by police at Stockwell Tube station
- 17 July 2006 CPS says no officers will be prosecuted, but Met Police will be tried for breaching health and safety laws
- 1 November 2007 Met Police found guilty of breaching health and safety laws and fined
- 22 October 2008 Inquest under way – coroner rules out unlawful killing verdict a month later
- 12 December 2008 Inquest jury returns open verdict
- 16 November 2009 Met Police settles damages claim with family
- 10 June 2015 De Menezes family take legal challenge to European Court of Human Rights
- 30 March 2016 Family lose challenge over decision not to charge any police officer over the shooting
- In 2007, it was reported that the Met Police had been found guilty of breaching health and safety laws.
- In spite of the Met being fined, the then-Commissioner Sir Ian said that he would remain in his position, despite calls for his resignation. He eventually stepped down in 2008.
In 2005, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a statement: ‘We are all desperately sorry for the death of an innocent person, and I understand entirely the feelings of the young man’s family. But we also have to understand the police are doing their job in very, very difficult circumstances.
‘Had the circumstances been different and had this turned out to be a terrorist, and they had failed to take that action, they would have been criticised the other way.’
Both Paddick and Tovey sat down together to talk to Metro.
Talking to Metro, Tovey, 43, emphasised how much of an ‘honour’ it was to portray Paddick, 67, in Suspect, having been aware of his pioneering work prior to being cast in the role.
Paddick was the first senior police officer to come out as gay and made community relations a priority.
As a borough commander he instructed his police officers not to arrest or charge people found with cannabis so they could focus on other crimes that were affecting residents’ quality of life.
After retiring from the police force in 2007, Paddick went on to become the Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor in 2008 and 2012, and was invited by current commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to become a non-executive advisor for the Met Police in 2023.
Tovey, who is himself gay, said: ‘I’ve been aware of Brian and his work for probably 20 years when I first started being invited to charity events like Stonewall and the Terrence Higgins Trust.
‘I was slightly in awe of him and thought he was an astonishing presence at those events… and seeing what was happening in the press around that time as well, it was a good role model to have.’
Paddick recalled to Tovey how he didn’t come out formally in the police for 20 years, because he was ‘afraid of the adverse impacts’ doing so could have on his career.
‘And then I reached a certain seniority as a commander… and now I could say the things that I honestly believed in a way that I felt I couldn’t before,’ he said.
‘It was difficult because you had to put so much energy into trying to be somebody you weren’t and to use gender neutral pronouns when describing a partner, and it’s still difficult for gay police officers today.
‘So we’re nowhere near where we need to be in terms of a police service that is understanding and accepting of differences.’
Enjoying spending time with Paddick, Tovey hopes that viewers take away ‘how much of a hero Brian was and has been throughout his career’, but also specifically with regard to this story.
He said: ‘Everything he worked for all his life and devoted himself to was under fire, but he still chose in that moment to uphold integrity and honesty and truth and what he believed the Met should be, so I hope that the audience are going to celebrate what a brilliant, honest man he’s always been.
‘I hope that this will hold many people accountable in the way that dramatising something has a unique way of doing.’
Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes is available to stream on Disney Plus.