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Emily Mortimer to star as Cressida Dick in drama

Getty Images Emily Mortimer posing for photos at a Bafta awards ceremony. She is wearing a black chiffon top and has long dark hair. Getty Images
Emily Mortimer will play Cressida Dick in the Disney+ series

Paddington actor Emily Mortimer has been cast as former senior Met police officer Dame Cressida Dick in a new drama about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.

Dame Cressida was leading the operation where Mr de Menezes was shot and killed by police firearms officers in a London Tube station on 22 July 2005.

The officers wrongly thought he was a terrorist involved in failed bombing attempts the day before.

Disney+ announced on Tuesday that Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes will be shown on the channel this spring.

Head and shoulders shot of Jean Charles, looking at the camera, smiling. He is wearing a light coloured sleeveless top and is in front of some hedging.
Electrician Jean Charles was shot by police two weeks after the terror attacks in London on 7 July 2005

The Met faced legal action over the shooting, while Dame Cressida was cleared of personal blame in a trial in 2007.

Mr de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, was shot by police at Stockwell underground station, two weeks after the terror attacks on London's transport network on 7 July 2005 in which 52 people died.

Getty Images A woman with her back to the camera lights a candle in front of a shrine which features a photo of Jean Charles at the centre of a painted depiction of the Brazilian flag. Getty Images
Mr de Menezes' friends created a shrine after his death at Stockwell station

Mr de Menezes was mistaken for failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman, who had attempted to bomb London the day before, 21 July 2005.

His death led to protests both in the UK and Brazil, criticism of police tactics and an apology from the then Prime Minister Tony Blair.

More than four years after his death the Met agreed to pay compensation to his family, reported to be just over £100,000.

The Met commissioner at the time made "a further unreserved apology to the family" and that "he was a totally innocent victim and in no way to blame for his untimely death".

Getty Images A younger looking Cressida Dick outside the Old Bailey in London flanked by police officers in 2007. She is carrying a pile of papers and a photographer is in the foreground taking a photo of her. Getty Images
In 2007 Dame Cressida was cleared of personal blame for the botched operation

Disney+ said Jean Charles de Menezes' parents and other relatives are serving as consultants for the series.

It said the drama would be "told from multiple perspectives of those involved" and would "examine how memory - both accurate and distorted - can be turned into fact and shape our understanding of the truth".

Alongside Ms Mortimer, the cast includes Conleth Hill as Met commissioner Sir Ian Blair, Russell Tovey as deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick and newcomer Edison Alcaide as Mr de Menezes.

In a 2008 statement to the inquest investigating Mr de Menezes' death, Dame Cressida expressed deep personal regret over his death but said: "If you ask me whether I think anybody did anything wrong or unreasonable on the operation, I don't think they did."

She subsequently rose through the ranks to become the first female commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 2017.

She resigned in February 2022 saying the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan "no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership".

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