Death of Ian Tomlinson

Ian Tomlinson being treated by Paramedics - Scotland Yard wrongly claimed on their website that police were pelted with rocks and glass as he was being treated - They later took down the claim

There is outrage in the UK that yet again there is one law for the public and another law for the police. An official decision to bring no charges against the policeman who struck Ian Tomlinson minutes before he died at the G20 protests came under intense scrutiny as it emerged that the Independent Police Complaints Commission had backed a prosecution for manslaughter.

Yesterday on the 22nd July, on the fifth anniversary of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) presented their report into the death of Ian Tomlinson, the newspaper seller killed in the City of London as he tried to make his way home past the police during the G20 protests on 1 April 2009.

Ian Tomlinson (1961/62 – 1 April 2009) was a British newspaper vendor who died in the City of London, London's financial district, during the 2009 G-20 London summit protests on his way home from work. A first post-mortem indicated that he had suffered a heart attack because of coronary artery disease, and had died of natural causes.


Ian Tomlinson walking past the police before he was struck

His death became controversial a week later when The Guardian Newspaper obtained video footage, taken by an investment fund manager from New York, showing that Tomlinson, who was not a protester, had been struck on the leg from behind by a police officer wielding a baton, then pushed to the ground by the same officer. The footage showed no provocation on Tomlinson's part, who at the time was walking along with his hands in his pockets. Dressed in a bright yellow reflective jacket, black uniform and helmet, Pc Harwood’s identity number was covered up and he had a scarf across the lower part of his face.

Let us now pause and toy with a remarkable statistic. Despite over 1,000 people dying in police custody or due to police action since the late 1960s if the police officer who the DPP said had assaulted Ian Tomlinson was charged with manslaughter it would have been the first time this has ever happened in Britain. Ask yourself the simple question - what is the statistical possibility that these over 1,000 human beings who died in police custody or as a result of police action were all killed lawfully? They include Blair Peach killed (according to the police’s own investigation) by a TSG member at an anti-racism demonstration in 1979, Jean Charles de Menezes shot with 3 bullets in the brain 5 years ago, Sean Rigg and Joy Gardiner who died in police stations and Harry Stanley, 46, from Hackney, east London, was shot in the head and the hand by the Met officers in 1999 carrying a chair leg in a plastic bag which the two officers thought was a sawn-off shot gun.


Ian Tomlinson being helped by a member of the public just after he was assaulted by PC Simon Harwood circled in the background. Police initially claimed they went to his assistance when he became ill and they had no previous contact with him

Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, acknowledged there was evidence that the officer, named as PC Simon Harwood, assaulted Tomlinson minutes before he died. But he said there was no realistic prospect of conviction because of "sharp disagreements" between pathologists. He said the police officer captured on film striking Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests in London will not face criminal charges over his death because of conflicting opinions about the cause of death. Dr Freddy Patel conducted the first post-mortem on Mr Tomlinson's body and ruled he had died of a heart attack. That was contradicted by two subsequent post-mortems, which both found that the 47-year-old died of internal bleeding caused by a blow to the abdomen.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) also said it could not bring an assault charge because such a charge must be brought within six months, and it had taken 11 months to reach a decision. A charge of misconduct in public office was also considered, but rejected. But a direct challenge to the CPS also emerged tonight from Dr Nat Cary, the second forensic pathologist who examined Tomlinson's body. He told the Guardian prosecutors made a factual error in dismissing a charge of actual bodily harm. He said his report contained clear evidence that Tomlinson suffered injuries sufficient to support a charge of ABH. But the CPS dismissed the injuries as "relatively minor" and thus not enough to support a charge of ABH in its written reasons given to the family.

Cary, speaking for the first time about the case, told the Guardian: "I'm quite happy to challenge that. No the injuries were not relatively minor. It is a flawed approach. He sustained quite a large area of bruising. Such injuries are consistent with a baton strike, which could amount to ABH. It's extraordinary. If that's not ABH I would like to know what is."

The CPS said Patel's findings would provide a jury with enough reasonable doubt that the attack by the officer contributed to the death, and as a result they would acquit. By coincidence Patel today faced a disciplinary hearing at the General Medical Council for allegedly conducting four other autopsies incompetently. He could be struck off and the Home Office has suspended him from its approved list.

See details in the Daily Telegaph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/g20-summit/7904804/G20-riots-profile-of-Dr-Freddy-Patel.html


A police cordon during the G20 summit protests. Thousands of protesters had been "kettled" by cordons as Tomlinson was trying to make his way home.

But another entirely strange aspect of this tragic case emerged today. Pc Simon Harwood, 43, retired from the Met a decade ago on ill health grounds while facing a misconduct hearing for an alleged road rage incident. The officer was working for the Met during the 1990s when he was accused of a road rage incident while off duty, but retired on health grounds. He then rejoined the force as a civilian computer worker, before moving to Surrey Police as a Pc after passing a medical and vetting process, during which it is understood that he made a full disclosure of his background. He moved back to the Met in November 2004 and later given a place in the force's controversial Territorial Support Group (TSG) unit. The TSG are referred to by other police officers by their nickname “The Filth” as they have a fearsome reputation as “hardmen” even within the police service and officers who have “aggression issues” are often taken off front line policing and assigned to the TSG. One commentator asked why PC Harwood was facilitated in rejoining the service, a very good question which deserves a very good answer. Was he a brother Mason, perhaps?

Let us think how it would have happened if it was the other way around? If a police officer had been assaulted by a protestor and died minutes later. Would there have been “mistakes” in collecting evidence which meant charges were time expired? Would they have waited 16 months to decide not to prosecute? The police are paid from our taxes to protect us not to kill us. They must operate with our consent and within the Law and they must be held accountable.

The DPP decision in the Ian Tomlinson case is a whitewash which destroys confidence in the police and in the Rule of Law. No matter how much the Police talk about a new era of policing and enshrining the right to protest, the establishment has once again have allowed police officers to kill an innocent man.


The Guardian obtained this footage of Ian Tomlinson at a G20 protest in London shortly before he died. It shows Tomlinson, who was not part of the demonstration, being assaulted from behind and pushed to the ground by baton-wielding police.

See also;

Jean Charles de Menezes

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/death-in-london.html

Remember Sean Rigg

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/08/remember-sean-rigg.html

Ian Tomlinson on Wikipedia

For an update (May 2011) on the Ian Tomlinson case see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/05/any-justice-still-for-ian-tomlinson.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ian_Tomlinson

Vigil for Ian Tomlinson

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/11/tuesday-candlelight-vigil-to-remember.html