In the seven years since her partner was shot dead by a police officer, painter and decorator Gail Hadfield Grainger has gained three A-levels and a law degree. A desire for justice drives the 36-year-old, who studied while caring for two children and her disabled mother. Her efforts meant she could work closely with the legal team during a 14-week inquiry into the killing of Anthony Grainger.

On 11 July Judge Thomas Teague QC will publish his report on the inquiry into the shooting. It has been two years in the writing and is expected to be highly critical of the force and planned firearms operations.

For Hadfield Grainger it has been a long wait. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” she says. “It’s been a seven-year battle for the truth and a shameful chapter for Greater Manchester Police (GMP). If it wants our trust, major systemic change is required. Without that, it poses a threat to the public it’s meant to protect.”

She was in a relationship for four years with Grainger. In October 2011, five months before his death at the age of 36, he had moved into her home in Salford where she lived with her children, now aged 10 and 16. “He was a loving father to my children,” Hadfield Grainger told the inquiry. “He was always there for me.”

It’s perhaps unsurprising that Hadfield Grainger is highly critical of GMP, but her opinion is reinforced by a granular knowledge of the circumstances surrounding her partner’s death. In her kitchen are stacks of books with titles such as The Future of Policing and Human Rights and Civil Liberties. While the inquiry was going on and since, she has been studying part-time for a masters in criminology. “I studied law to win justice for Anthony,” she says.

On Saturday 3 March 2012, Hadfield Grainger was making tea for the family when Grainger, a vehicle recovery driver for a breaker’s firm, said he had to go out for an hour. He told Hadfield Grainger’s son to pause the Xbox game they had been playing. Uncharacteristically, he did not come home.

In the morning, two friends told Hadfield Grainger her partner had been shot. “No police contacted me. I had to Google to find out what had happened to my boyfriend,” she says.

Grainger and two associates had been under surveillance for five months as part of GMP’s Operation Shire. The police suspected the trio of planning an armed robbery on a “cash-in-transit vehicle”. At 7.30pm on 3 March, Grainger was in the driving seat of a stolen red Audi that he had been driving for three months. The Audi was parked in the corner of a supermarket car park in Culceth, Cheshire. Three police cars performed a “hard stop”, boxing in the Audi.

In the back seat of the first car a specialist firearms officer (SFO) – referred to as Q9 – told the inquiry that he shouted a challenge. Q9 said Grainger lowered his right hand and, believing he had a gun, Q9 fired through the Audi windscreen within “one to three seconds”. Grainger and his two associates were unarmed.

Gail Hadfield Grainger with Anthony Grainger, who was killed in 2012.

No audio or visual recordings were made of the operation by the 16-man team. The following week, Hadfield Grainger staged her own reconstruction, using similar cars. In her kitchen, on a whiteboard, she illustrates how the operation was conducted. “It was pitch black. It would have been hard to see anything. It could have been my son in the car, he’s a tall lad. The two men with Anthony were later acquitted of conspiracy to rob. The whole operation was a shambles,” she says.

“Police officers were sent out after a 14-hour shift beginning at 4am with machine guns, tasers, shotguns and CS gas cannisters, having been told Anthony was a bad’un. Their intelligence was wrong. Why would you not double-check its veracity to prevent loss of life?”

In 2005, Azelle Rodney was shot by Anthony Long, a Met police SFO. In 2013 an inquiry decided that there had been, “no lawful justification” for Rodney’s death. Long was tried for murder and acquitted. In the deaths of Rodney, Mark Duggan in 2011, and Grainger, the key question is: was the use of a high-risk, hard-stop tactic lawful in the circumstances? Under Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights, was the use of force proportionate to the assessed threat? Or were there alternative options to prevent loss of life?

I hope that Judge Teague recommends that a criminal charge of murder or manslaughter is brought

Tony Murphy of Bhatt Murphy, Hadfield Grainger’s solicitor, says: “Anthony was unarmed and left defenceless due to a lethally incompetent police operation. In that final moment, there was nothing he could have done to protect himself.”

In 2013, an inquiry by the then Independent Police Complaints Commission concluded that there had been 16 failings in the Grainger operation. They included that police marksmen had “conferred over witness statements”. Assistant chief constable Steve Heywood, who retired from the force last year, faces a charge of gross misconduct. The inquiry heard that some of his notes had been written after the shooting, leading to a “false impression” of intelligence.

In the inquiry in 2017, it was revealed that intelligence did not support a reasonable view that Grainger (who had a conviction for dangerous driving in 1997) was violent, possessed firearms or was involved in armed robbery. “I hope that Judge Teague recommends that a criminal charge of murder or manslaughter is brought against Q9 and he must face gross misconduct proceedings,” Hadfield Grainger says.

“I hope GMP is held accountable for its wider failings, including trying to hide the truth. If the recommendations made following Azelle Rodney’s death had been heeded, Anthony would still be with us.”

She and Grainger were hoping to have children together. She keeps his shoes under the bed and his coat hanging in the hall. “Closure? I hope so. After seven years, I’m not who I was. My aim now is to work with others to stop this ever happening again.”