Shot barrister's family starts legal challenge

LONDON (Reuters) - The investigation into the police shooting of a barrister during a siege was unlawful because officers were allowed to confer before giving accounts of the event, his family's legal team said on Wednesday.

Lawyer Tim Owen, representing Mark Saunders' sister at a judicial review into the inquiry at the High Court, said the practice raised the risk of collusion.

Relatives say Saunders posed no imminent threat to officers or neighbours in the final minutes before he was shot in Markham Square, Chelsea, on May 6. Police marksmen shot the 32-year-old after a stand-off lasting nearly five hours.

"There can be no doubt that the present practice means that there is a substantial risk of collusion and of contamination," Owen told the court, according to the Press Association.

The judge, Mr Justice Underhill, will also consider the family's argument that they did not receive information during the investigation.

The victim's sister Charlotte Saunders pressed for a judicial review because she thinks the police should have made greater efforts to end the siege peacefully.

"I am not necessarily saying that they (the police at the scene) have chatted to each other and cooked up some story," she told BBC radio. "But they are allowed an opportunity to discuss their thoughts with the other people.

"I do question whether they really had to kill my brother. I would have thought over the course of four and half hours something else could have been done."

"All I want to know is what was in the minds of those officers when they decided to take my brother's life."