Chris Kaba’s family, Hickman & Rose and INQUEST respond to IOPC’s misconduct proceedings pause

Family members of Chris Kaba, their solicitors Daniel Machover and Ellie Cornish, and INQUEST’s Deborah Coles have today responded to the IOPC’s decision to pause misconduct proceedings against the police officer who shot Mr Kaba dead.

In September 2022 Met police firearms officer Martyn Blake fatally shot Chris Kaba, 24, in Streatham, south London. Mr Kaba was unarmed and police officers did not know who he was at the time of the shooting.

In October 2024 Mr Blake was acquitted of murder at trial. In April 2025 the IOPC confirmed that he would face a disciplinary hearing for gross misconduct. The IOPC today announced it will pause these proceedings until planned changes to the law on police disciplinary cases are put in place by the Government.

Responding to this decision Chris Kaba’s family said: “We cannot understand why we, as Chris’ family, only learned for the first time today that the Met invited the IOPC to drop proceedings against Martyn Blake back in November.

We are devastated that the IOPC has decided under this kind of police pressure to put on hold the preparations for Martyn Blake’s gross misconduct proceedings.

The IOPC could and should have consulted us last year, in advance of this decision. We would have said then, and we say now, that preparations for these proceedings should continue without more disruption and delay. To not involve us until after a decision to pause has been made is deeply disappointing and has damaged our confidence in the independence of the IOPC. The lack of consideration shown to us in this process adds to our trauma and our sense of injustice.”

Hickman & Rose’s Daniel Machover and Ellie Cornish said: “It is deeply distressing to his family that they now face yet more waiting and uncertainty, and to learn that they were not made aware in real time of representations made last year by the Met to the IOPC that these proceedings should be withdrawn altogether, which has led directly to the decision announced by the IOPC today. 

It cannot be right to stop this process to await the promised future change to the legal test for bringing disciplinary proceedings for breach of the Use of Force standard, making it the criminal law test in future cases.”

INQUEST’s Deborah Coles said: “It is alarming that the police watchdog appears to have bowed to pressure from the Metropolitan Police, whilst Chris’ family were kept in the dark.

The government is already stripping back what little police accountability the public and bereaved families have.

At a time when public trust in policing is at rock bottom, excluding bereaved families from considerations which affect them so profoundly is indefensible. The police must never be allowed to influence how their own actions are investigated.”

Read more: INQUEST, The Standard, Voice Online