Family hit at police-shooting court delay

Stephen Bellingham was shot during a rampage. Photo / Simon Baker

The family of a man shot dead by police is getting fed up with delays in getting the case before a court, but say they are not expecting it will give them closure when it happens.

Stephen Bellingham, 37, was fatally fired on by a senior policeman, known as Officer A, after he went on a drug-fuelled rampage in Linwood, Christchurch, in September 2007.

His family are still waiting for a coroner's court hearing, now due in December, to examine what led to his death.

"The only thing I want out of it is the police to say 'we made a mistake ... and we humbly apologise'," said Mr Bellingham's father, Ray Bellingham. "That would go 99 per cent of the way [to] closure. But it's not going to ever happen."

Stephen Bellingham was reportedly advancing on Officer A with a hammer when he was shot, and a police internal investigation found the officer acted in self-defence.

A report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority backed the self-defence finding, but also found that Officer A broke procedure by not telling other officers he was armed or even at the shooting scene.

"Officer A made a decision that placed him in a confrontational position with a man who was on a violent rampage," the report said.

Ray Bellingham said the coroner's hearing had already been scheduled and put off several times.

"We've had a couple of kicks in the teeth - we've had aeroplane tickets organised, motels and my son coming from Melbourne, he's had his ticket booked and everything else, and we've had to cancel it. So we'll just wait to see what happens. You really don't even know if it's going to be on two days before.

"To be quite honest, I just think they don't really give two stuffs about us."

Mr Bellingham said he understood that issues over access to Officer A's employment records could lead to the December hearing being put off.

Although his son had a hammer in his hand, which he had been using to smash cars parked on the street, he did not deserve to die, Mr Bellingham said.

Police and Coroner Brandt Shortland said they were unable to comment yesterday.