THE METROPOLITAN police officer who struck and pushed the newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson as he walked away from riot officers on the fringe of the G20 protests in London more than three years ago has been sacked for gross misconduct and told he will never work for a force again.
But the family of Mr Tomlinson, who have campaigned relentlessly after mobile phone footage emerged revealing the 47-year-old’s final movements, described the process as a “whitewash” after a disciplinary panel decided not to rule on whether PC Simon Harwood’s actions led, even inadvertently, to Mr Tomlinson’s death.
Mr Tomlinson collapsed and died shortly after Mr Harwood pushed him over as a line of riot police cleared a passageway in London’s City district on April 1st, 2009. His family were initially told he had collapsed without any interaction with police and died of natural causes. But video footage showed him being struck and pushed by a riot officer, soon identified as Mr Harwood.
For 3½ years Mr Tomlinson’s wife and children have fought to prove that Mr Harwood acted with disproportionate force, and also that the riot officer’s actions directly caused his death.
At a Metropolitan police disciplinary hearing yesterday, the first in the force’s history to be held in public, Mr Harwood admitted he had acted with gross misconduct.
“PC Harwood’s use of force in this case cannot be justified. His actions have discredited the police service and undermined public confidence in it,” said Commander Julian Bennett, who chaired the panel, announcing Mr Harwood’s dismissal with immediate effect.
“PC Harwood has accepted that it would be impossible for him to ever again serve as a police officer, whether within the MPS [Metropolitan police service] or any other police force. We agree, as we consider it inconceivable that he could ever perform a role in the police service again.”
Outside the venue in Earls Court, west London, Mr Tomlinson’s stepson, Paul King, described the process as “a whitewash”. He said: “It’s like they have just let PC Harwood resign. The conflicting verdicts of the inquest and criminal court still need to be resolved. We haven’t given up. We will now be looking to the civil courts for the final judgment on who killed our dad.”
Two of three postmortems on Mr Tomlinson concluded he died from internal bleeding, most likely caused by the heavy fall on to the pavement. – (Guardian service)