MARKSMAN ACCUSED OF EXAGGERATING

The highly-trained firearms officer insisted he shouted "armed police" before opening fire on the Brazilian in a London Underground train.

But other police officers and all the public in the carriage made no reference in their statements to him saying this prior to the shooting, the inquest into Mr de Menezes's death heard.

The 27-year-old was shot seven times in the head at point-blank range inside Stockwell Tube station on July 22 2005 after being mistaken for one of the men who attacked London a day earlier.

The police marksman, identified by the code name C12, has told the inquest he killed Mr de Menezes fearing he was a suicide bomber about to detonate his device.

Michael Mansfield QC, for the Menezes family, alleged C12 "embellished" his account to explain why he was so certain the innocent Brazilian posed a deadly threat.

The barrister put it to C12: "I am going to make it plain that what you did when it came to making a statement the following day was to grossly exaggerate what you saw in order to, as it were, convince people that he had been a terrorist about to explode a bomb, in your mind. Is there any possibility you did that?"

The officer replied: "Absolutely none whatsoever."

C12 said he only fired on Mr de Menezes after raising his gun and calling out "armed police". But Mr Mansfield alleged the other witnesses' statements proved the officer did not give the Brazilian any verbal warning before shooting him.

C12, a member of Scotland Yard's elite CO19 specialist firearms unit, earlier admitted that a series of misunderstandings and mistakes led to Mr de Menezes's death.