A POLICEMAN has been acquitted of killing Ian Tomlinson during G20 protests in London by striking the 47-year-old bystander with a baton and pushing him to the ground as he walked away from police lines.
The jury at Southwark Crown Court in London yesterday cleared PC Simon Harwood (45), a member of the Metropolitan police’s elite Territorial Support Group, a public order unit, of manslaughter following one of the most high-profile cases of alleged police misconduct in recent years.
PC Harwood told the court that while in retrospect he “got it wrong” in seeing Mr Tomlinson as a potentially threatening obstruction as police cleared a pedestrian passageway in the City – London’s financial district – on the evening of April 1st, 2009, his actions were justifiable within the context of the widespread disorder of that day.
The jury’s verdict, after four days of deliberations, brings about something of a legal contradiction: 14 months ago another jury, at the inquest into Tomlinson’s death, ruled he had been unlawfully killed by Harwood. The inquest ruling was made on the same burden of proof as a criminal trial, that is, beyond reasonable doubt.
Neither jury heard details of PC Harwood’s prior disciplinary record, which can only be reported now. This includes the fact he quit the Met on health grounds in 2001 shortly before a planned disciplinary hearing into claims he illegally tried to arrest a driver after a road rage incident while off duty, altering his notes to retrospectively justify the actions.
PC Harwood was nonetheless able to join another force, Surrey, before returning to serve with the Met in 2005.
He allegedly punched, throttled, kneed or threatened other suspects while in uniform in other alleged incidents.
The verdict will come as a huge disappointment to Mr Tomlinson’s family following a saga that began when the father of four, who was stepfather to his wife’s five other children, collapsed as he tried to make his way home through police lines.
This followed a day of protests connected to the meeting in London of leaders from the G20 group of nations. Mr Tomlinson died shortly afterwards. – (Guardian service)