BRITAIN:Traces of cocaine were found in Jean Charles de Menezes after he was shot dead by British firearms officers, a court heard yesterday.
Pathologist Dr Kenneth Shorrock told the Old Bailey that tests showed Mr de Menezes must have taken the drug.
A by-product of cocaine was also found in the bloodstream of the 27-year-old Brazilian, who was gunned down at Stockwell tube station on July 22nd, 2005.
Dr Shorrock was giving evidence at the trial of the Metropolitan Police, which is accused of a "catastrophic" series of errors leading to the death of Mr de Menezes, who was mistaken for a suicide bomber. It denies a single charge under health and safety laws.
Yesterday the court heard that a toxicology test following Mr de Menezes's death showed a blood test for cocaine was "below detectable levels" but his urine tested positive.
Ronald Thwaites QC, defending, asked Dr Shorrock: "Does that indicate that he had relatively recently consumed cocaine?" Dr Shorrock replied: "I can't speak with any expertise about when he would have consumed it, but that plus the presence of benzoylecognine, a breakdown product of cocaine, indicates that he had used cocaine at some time."
Dr Shorrock gave the cause of death as gunshot wounds. There were seven in total - five to the head, one to the right shoulder and one to the neck.
Mr Thwaites asked if cocaine had the potential to cause "abnormal or unusual behaviour". Dr Shorrock said: "It is a euphoric drug. It is a drug that lifts your mind, it is a stimulant drug.
"It can make you do things that to somebody who hadn't used the drug might seem inappropriate and it can make people behave aggressively." But he added that the effects would not necessarily be the same for every individual.
He agreed when Mr Thwaites suggested it could cause "distortion of thought processes" and when its effects wore off it could produce anxiety, which could manifest itself as paranoia.
But, questioned by Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting, he said that if cocaine were in "active stimulant mode" you would expect to find it in the bloodstream, which it was not in Mr de Menezes's case.