The Metropolitan Police have been given another five weeks to consider their plea over the shooting of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes.

The 27-year-old electrician was shot seven times in the head by the anti-terror officers who mistook him for a suicide bomber at Stockwell Tube station in July last year.

The Met was charged with breaching health and safety laws over the killing.

At Westminster Magistrates Court this morning the Met said it was not ready to enter a plea and needed more time to consider the evidence.

The case - brought by the Independent Police Complaints Commission against the Office of the Commissioner - will resume on September 19.

If convicted, the Met could face a massive fine and a civil damages claim from Mr de Menezes' family.

Last month the Crown Prosecution Service ruled that the individual officers involved in the killing should not be prosecuted because the evidence supported their claims that they believed he was a suicide bomber.

The marksmen involved in the shooting were recently allowed to return to full operational duties. The officers had been taken off firearms duty during the year-long investigation.

Stephen O'Doherty, a senior lawyer from the CPS Crime Division, stressed that the health and safety prosecution was not a prosecution of Met commissioner Sir Ian Blair in his personal capacity.