Police force sentenced over death

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) will be sentenced for a health and safety breach over the fatal shooting of one of its officers in a training exercise.

PC Ian Terry 32, was killed during the GMP firearms training exercise at a disused warehouse in June 2008.

GMP's Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy, who assumed the post after Pc Terry was killed, pleaded guilty on behalf of his force at Liverpool Crown Court on January 22 to a breach of Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA).

Two GMP firearms officers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, each denied one count of a breach of Section 7 of the HSWA.

The officers, a sergeant and a constable, will stand trial on June 10.

Pc Terry, a father-of-two from Burnley, Lancashire, was shot as the unit practised in a disused factory in Newton Heath on June 9, 2008.

The officer, who was not wearing body armour, was hit from a distance of about 12 inches by a blank round of a specialist ammunition called round irritant personnel, which is not designed to kill but can be deadly at close range.

He had brandished an unloaded handgun during the exercise while playing the role of a criminal fleeing in a car.

An inquest held at Manchester Coroner's Court in March 2010 found Pc Terry was unlawfully killed.

GMP pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."