De Menezes composite picture 'was manipulated'

A composite picture comparing Jean Charles de Menezes with Hussain Osman, one of the men who tried to bomb London's transport network on July 21, 2005, was dishonestly manipulated, a court was told today. The image, produced to illustrate how similar the two men were in appearance, was shown to jurors at the Old Bailey by lawyers for the Metropolitan police. The force faces a single charge under health and safety laws over the death of De Menezes, a Brazilian electrician, who was shot by armed officers at Stockwell tube station in south London on July 22, 2005. Police have claimed they mistook the innocent 27-year-old for Osman because the pair looked so similar. The composite picture, showing half of each man's face, was reconstructed to help support police claims that officers would have had great difficulties in differentiating between the two men. However, prosecuting attorney Clare Montgomery said that the image had been altered "by either stretching or resizing so the face ceases to have its correct proportions." The judge, Justice Henriques, told the jury: "A serious allegation has been made that a picture has been manipulated so as to mislead." Michael George, a forensics consultant, told the court that the composite image could not have been produced using Powerpoint software. He said the two images used to make the picture appeared to have a "greater definition" than the composite picture, and produced an alternative composite in which the two faces had different skin tones and their mouths and noses were not aligned. The court heard that the images were taken from a 2001 identity card photograph of De Menezes and a photo of Osman taken by police in Rome. George said that in the police composite, the picture of the Brazilian appeared to be have been brightened and had lost definition compared with the original. The brightening also appeared to have "got rid of the definition of some of the characteristics" which could be seen in the original picture, including areas around the left nostril and the chin, he said. Defense attorney Ronald Thwaites asked George whether there had been any manipulation "of the primary features of the face." George replied: "I don't believe there has been any... but making the image brighter has changed the image." Police have been accused of a "catastrophic" series errors leading to the death of De Menezes. The Met denies the single charge against it.