GIULIANI AND GAGGIO v. ITALY JUDGMENT 45 impossible to formulate a scientific hypothesis as to the type of collision in which the bullet had been involved during its trajectory and to maintain that it had been deflected. Furthermore, the other experts appointed by the applicants had taken the view that the stone had shattered on impact with the jeep rather than because of the bullet fired by M.P. (see paragraph 65 above). 160. According to the applicants, the lives of the jeep's occupants had not been in danger, as the vehicle in question had been a Defender jeep, a model which, even without armour, was sufficiently robust. Furthermore, the number of demonstrators visible on the images was no more than a dozen or so. The demonstrators had not had lethal weapons and had not surrounded the jeep; the audiovisual material showed that there had been no demonstrators to the left or in front of the vehicle. As proved by the photographs, there had been a riot shield on board the jeep. M.P. had been wearing a bullet-proof vest and had two helmets at his disposal. Finally, there had been other law-enforcement officers in the vicinity and there was no proof that the injuries of which M.P. and D.R. complained had been sustained during the events. 161. According to the autopsy report (see paragraph 50 above) and as could be deduced from M.P.'s own statements, the latter had fired downwards. When questioned on 20 July 2001 by representatives of the Genoa public prosecutor's office, M.P. had stated that there had been nobody in his field of vision when he pointed his gun; he had been aware of stones being thrown and of the presence of assailants whom he could not see (see paragraph 36 above). In those circumstances it was difficult to imagine how M.P. could have been acting in self-defence in response to the actions of Carlo Giuliani, whom he was unable to see. As neither Carlo Giuliani nor the other demonstrators had been armed, M.P.'s response could not be said to have been proportionate. 162. Moreover, M.P.'s statements had been contradictory. On the first two occasions when he had been questioned (on 20 July and 11 September 2001 – see paragraphs 36 and 39 above), he stated that he had not seen Carlo Giuliani and did not say that he had fired upwards (this, in the applicants' view, amounted to a tacit admission that he had fired at chest height). However, at the hearing of 1 June 2007 in the “trial of the twenty-five”, he stated that he had fired with his arm in the air; this was at odds with a photograph produced by the defence which showed him pointing the weapon at chest height, at a downward angle from the horizontal. Lastly, during a television interview broadcast on 15 November 2007, M.P. stated that he had “tried to fire as high in the air as possible”, that he had not aimed at Carlo Giuliani and that he had never been a good shot. He added that he had been sent to the G8 in Genoa as a replacement for a colleague who did not wish to go.