Civil claim over shooting by police

A civil claim against the police for battery by the family of an unarmed man shot dead during a police raid was not to be struck out despite the responsible officer’s acquittal of murder because, in civil law, a plea of mistaken self-defence required not only that the assailant’s mistaken belief that he had been under threat had been honestly held, as required by the criminal law, but also that it had been reasonably held.