De Menezes had to be stopped - Met

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick said she was told five times the man police were following was attempted suicide bomber Hussain Osman.

She told the Old Bailey she believed he had to be stopped from going into the Underground to protect the public.

Trial judge Mr Justice Henriques asked her: "It was not 100% positive identification?"

She replied: "I believed that they believed it was him, but also that they could be wrong."

Asked what she was thinking at the time, she said: "I did not have any intelligence telling me that he was not carrying a bomb and I believed that he was the person from the day before." Asked if she thought her handling of the situation was proportionate, she said: "I do."

She was giving evidence at the trial of the Metropolitan Police, which is accused of a "catastrophic" series of failures leading up to the death of Mr de Menezes, who was shot dead at Stockwell Tube station.

Ms Dick said she asked members of her team for a percentage of how certain they were that the man they were following was "Nettletip", codename for Osman, but was never given an answer. But she said she was also told three times by her Scotland Yard surveillance monitor, codenamed Pat, and twice by her "silver" commander that it was.

Ms Dick told the jury that in a "fast moving situation" there were no "golden rules" on the level of identification needed and that various factors fed her decision that day.

The trial was adjourned until Friday.