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Police officer’s ‘blood was up’ when he hit newspaper seller who died at G20 protests because another demonstrator left him ‘humiliated’ by escaping arrest
June 18, 2012
The police officer who struck Ian Tomlinson with a baton minutes before the newspaper vendor died did so when his ‘blood was up’ after being ‘humiliated’ by a protester who had escaped as he was trying to make an arrest, a court heard today. The actions of PC Simon Harwood, who is charged with manslaughter, were described by the prosecution today as being ‘more akin to thuggish behaviour than proper reasonable policing’. The jury was told that he allegedly sent the homeless newspaper seller flying with a ‘forceful baton strike’ and a ‘powerful push’ as he stood with his back to police and his hands in his pockets during the G20 protests.
PC Harwood, 41, had been ’embarrassed if not humiliated’ after trying to arrest a G20 protester who was daubing graffiti on a police van, only for the vandal to wriggle free, to the cheers of a watching crowd. After being struck, 47-year-old father-of-nine Mr Tomlinson fell to the ground during the April 2009 demo before staggering 70 metres away, where he eventually collapsed and died minutes later near the Royal Exchange Buildings in the City of London. CCTV footage taken on April 1, 2009 by police and members of the public captured the newspaper seller falling to the ground before staggering away.
An initial post-mortem concluded his death had been the result of a heart attack. But after footage of the assault shot by American banker Chris La Jaunie and CCTV of the subsequent collapse emerged, two further examinations concluded he had died as a result of internal bleeding. Prosecutor Mark Dennis QC, opening PC Harwood’s manslaughter trial, told jurors how Mr Tomlinson became unwittingly caught up in the G20 demo as he walked home from Monument to Smithfield. The prosecutor told jurors Mr Tomlinson did not die of natural causes, but that the ‘assault’ by PC Harwood caused his collapse and death. He told Southwark Crown Court that ‘It was a rush of blood to the head, it was unnecessary behavior more akin to thuggish behaviour than proper reasonable policing.’
Source = Daily Mail
Court told of PC’s ‘thuggish’ act
A police officer killed newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson in a gratuitous act of aggression “akin to thuggish behaviour”, a court has been told. Pc Simon Harwood is accused of striking Mr Tomlinson with a baton and pushing him to the ground as he prepared to walk away from a line of officers policing the G20 protests in London. The 47-year-old – who had been trying to head home but found his usual route blocked – collapsed within minutes and later died.
Harwood, 45, from Carshalton in Surrey, maintains that he used reasonable force and denies manslaughter. But Mr Tomlinson was facing away from Harwood and would have been “taken completely by surprise” when he was hit in the City of London on April 1 2009, jurors were told. He had little opportunity to protect himself from a heavy fall, they heard. The incident came not long after Harwood had been “embarrassed if not humiliated” by his failure to arrest a demonstrator he spotted trying to graffiti a police van, said prosecutors.
Source = Yahoo News
Court told of PC’s ‘thuggish’ act
June 18, 2012
A police officer killed newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson in a gratuitous act of aggression “akin to thuggish behaviour”, a court has been told. Pc Simon Harwood is accused of striking Mr Tomlinson with a baton and pushing him to the ground as he prepared to walk away from a line of officers policing the G20 protests in London.
The 47-year-old – who had been trying to head home but found his usual route blocked – collapsed within minutes and later died. Harwood, 45, from Carshalton in Surrey, maintains that he used reasonable force and denies manslaughter. But Mr Tomlinson was facing away from Harwood and would have been “taken completely by surprise” when he was hit in the City of London on April 1 2009, jurors were told. He had little opportunity to protect himself from a heavy fall, they heard.
Source = Evening Standard
4TheRecord 
Harwood is a nasty piece of work- hang the bastard.
he should go to prison for man slaughter
Simon Harwood was in a trusted position. He was meant to control and stop violence that day! So much for Him protecting the public. He abused his powers, he was in control of his actions, he should get life!