A JURY is set to retire to consider verdicts on two officers accused of being behind a ‘flawed’ police training exercise which led to the death of a Burnley constable.

Two firearms specialists, who cannot be identified, are facing a Health and Safety Executive prosecution over the June 2008 death of PC Ian Terry, who was shot at point-blank range by a colleague with a shotgun during a ‘cops and robbers’ role-play in Newton Heath, Manchester. The experienced officer who fired the fatal shot has never faced criminal charges.

Defence counsel has insisted no-one could have forseen that he would react to a perceived ‘threat’ by Pc Terry.

But prosecutors allege that it was inherently unsafe to introduce live rounds into the training exercise, and fail to gain authorisation for the practice from senior officers.