Cherry Groce shooting: Justice Secretary to review legal aid refusal
The Justice Secretary Chris Grayling is to review the decision to deny legal aid to the family of Cherry Groce, who was shot and crippled during a botched police raid in 1985, triggering riots in Brixton.
The announcement comes hours after the family delivered a 130,000 signature petition to the Prime Minister in protest against the refusal.
The family is seeking funding for a lawyer to represent them at their mother’s inquest.
Mrs Groce died 26 years after she was accidently shot. Pathologists for both the police and the family have declared a link between the shooting and her death.
Read more: Met publicly apologises for shooting mother of six
The family’s MP Chuka Umunna told Channel 4 News: “The initial decision to deny the legal aid assistance this family needs was both perverse and wrong – the family has suffered enough and the Lord Chancellor should reverse this decision without delay and give them the legal support that the other represented parties are being afforded by the taxpayer.”
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