Met chief rages at CPS after ‘common sense’ jury clears cop who crashed rushing to terror attack
MET Police boss Sir Mark Rowley yesterday hailed a jury’s “common sense” after a cop who crashed on a terror attack call was cleared of driving charges.
The Commissioner said he could think of “no other country where an officer rushing to the scene of a terror attack would be hounded and prosecuted over four years”.
Met firearms officer PC Paul Fisher drove at up to 80mph in an unmarked car before hitting a cab in February 2020.
He was on the way to Streatham, South London, where jihadi fanatic Sudesh Amman, 20, had stabbed people at random before he was then shot dead by police officers.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct probed the non-fatal crash and CPS lawyers gave the go-ahead to charge the cop with dangerous driving.
PC Fisher sighed with relief yesterday as a jury at Southwark crown court cleared him.
Outside, Sir Mark said: “Thank God for the common sense of British juries.
“Paul Fisher was under the most unimaginable pressure. He clearly made some mistakes.
“The right answer would have been warnings, some re-training, some re-testing to get him back protecting the public.
“Yet, here we are, four years later, when he and his family have faced unimaginable pressure having been pursued for that time by the IOPC and forced into a crown court trial.”
The IOPC has said it is considering “next steps”.