The Metropolitan Police Federation General Secretary has pressed for momentum to continue on the Government’s accountability review, to urgently provide more protection to police officers.

During the FedConnect session, alongside Colin Reynolds, senior partner at Reynolds Dawson Solicitors, Matt Cane discussed the moment they stepped in to provide all possible support to NX121 from the first day until conclusion of the trial.

He said: “There needs to be more protection for officers acting within law, within legislation.

“The Home Secretary gave us the speech recently on anonymity. We need to see these things coming out to protect our members when they’re trying to protect, in my case, the people of London.”

Matt, who was the Professional Standards Secretary for the Metfed at the time, stated the charging decision “came as an utter shock” and it raised the question of what the wider implications are for all police officers.

“We saw police officers across the country hand in their firearms tickets. There were grave concerns”, he said.

At the time of the incident, Mr Reynolds and his team were there within hours to provide legal wrap around alongside specialist Fed reps to initiate the post-incident procedure process. Ongoing support is being given to NX121.

“We were shocked, of course we had gone through the investigative process with the IOPC,” stated Mr Reynolds, who has 40 years’ experience. “I told him that this was just the beginning, and we need to start fighting back. We needed to get a true picture of what happened that evening to present to the jury.”

Overall, there were 15 pieces of body-worn video footage, five Cleartone extracts from five cars and 15 officers at the scene.

“I identified the risk to my client and his family, managing that with the support of the Metfed and PFEW and a superb team of protection officers throughout the trial and welfare officers.”

When asked from a legal perspective if he was expecting the murder charge, he replied he was not and explained issues with a ‘toy soldiers’ graphic presented by the IOPC, representing people that “weren’t at all dressed like the SO19 officers”.

“They produced the dots graphic, which was another graphic showing at the split-second you fire, this is where people are - but that wasn’t the reality of Kirkstall Gardens that night. We had to deal with that, but it was disappointing someone took the view at the investigation stage and presumably a high level at the CPS that’s what it showed.”

Both continued the session by spotlighting the incredible work of Fed reps.

“The Fed reps have been absolutely superb in looking after NX121, his welfare and his family,” said Matt. "The reps have worked tirelessly with the force to ensure the risk to him, and his family, have been mitigated and their welfare has been paramount throughout all of this. It has been difficult, but the firearms Fed reps are some of the most professional and skilled that we’ve got.

“This also highlights why police officers need to join the Federation. He could have not gone through the process without the support of the Federation and the legal team we provide.”

Mr Reynolds added: “This organisation supports its officers when it should do in a way that no other does (…) we had counsel of the highest calibre.

“NX121 is a man of the utmost integrity and professionalism. He is absolutely delighted with the level of support he got, and he knows where it came from.”