Judges to decide on Azelle Rodney film: Family of unarmed man shot dead by police want surveillance footage

The chairman of an ongoing public inquiry into the death of Azelle Rodney directed secret helicopter footage to be provided to four members of the family's legal teams.

Met lawyers are asking three judges at London's High Court to overturn Sir Christopher Holland's decision, accusing him of acting "irrationally".

Lord Justice Pitchford, Mr Justice Foskett and Judge Peter Thornton QC are expected to give their ruling next week.

The footage was shot during a surveillance operation involving Mr Rodney, 25, who was shot six times at point-blank range in west London in April 2005.

The police want to withhold it on the grounds it would not be in the public interest to reveal it, and it should have immunity from disclosure.

A police helicopter filmed Mr Rodney and two other men in a car for several hours in the Harlesden and Edgware areas before the interception and fatal shooting at Hale Lane.

The men were suspected of planning an armed drug heist.

Earlier this month, on October 2, Sir Christopher, a retired High Court judge, ruled footage should be seen by family lawyers to allow them to make submissions to the inquiry about why the material should be part of the evidence.

Today, Anne Studd QC, appearing for the Met, submitted that Sir Christopher had reached a conclusion that was so irrational it should be quashed.

Sir Christopher's decision under rule 12(4) of the 2006 Inquiry Rules was "insufficiently reasoned" and there was no basis for concluding that such disclosure was necessary within the meaning of the rules, Ms Studd argued.

She said the police accepted the chairman was entitled to achieve "as public an inquiry as possible", but that did not permit him "to misapply the rules and get the law wrong".

Ashley Underwood QC, counsel to the inquiry, argued that only disclosure to the family's lawyers would achieve a fair and well-informed public interest immunity process that respected the family's right to as open an inquiry as possible.