Dead Brazilian's poor family to get reduced pay-out

London: The family of Jean Charles de Menezes is to receive reduced compensation because they are so poor.

The limited financial support they could have received from the Brazilian electrician — shot dead by police marksmen — will also count against them.

Lawyers for Scotland Yard and the family are believed to have reached an out-of-court settlement. Although the amount is covered by a confidentiality clause, sources said it would have been much higher if de Menezes, 27, had left a widow and children or came from a wealthy family.

But when he died in 2005 his parents were living in a dilapidated one-bedroom house deep in the Brazilian rainforest.

The family's lawyers had suggested they would claim £300,000 (Dh1.83 million) from the Metropolitan Police for the disastrous operation that led to their son being mistaken for a suicide bomber and shot seven times in the head at Stockwell Tube station.

But it now appears the final pay-out could be as low as £100,000. That represents just a quarter of the £400,000 pay-off received by former Met chief Sir Ian Blair, who faced calls to resign over the shooting, was condemned by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and heard his marksmen branded liars by an inquest jury. It is even less than police paid out 23 years ago to an innocent man severely wounded by armed officers in similar circumstances.

The parents of Stephen Lawrence received £300,000 in compensation for the police blunders that left his killers free and Colin Stagg was paid £706,000 in state compensation — not by the police — after years of being wrongly suspected of murdering Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common.

The de Menezes family has so far received £15,000 from Scotland Yard to cover flying their son's body home and his funeral. As he was not officially the victim of a crime, they are not entitled to criminal injuries compensation.

Who got what

• Colin Stagg : The former prime suspect for the murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common, received £706,000 compensation from the Home Office. He was cleared after spending a year in jail.
• Stephen Lawrence's parents : Neville and Doreen Lawrence, the parents of the murdered black teenager, received £320,000 compensation from the Metropolitan Police for the police bungles that hampered the hunt for his killers.
• Victoria Climbie's family: Scotland Yard paid an undisclosed six figure sum to the family of Victoria Climbie, the eight-year-old girl from the Ivory Coast who was murdered by her guardians.
• Stephen Waldorf: The film editor received £150,000 in damages after being shot and severely injured by Met officers in 1983.