Death of Ian Tomlinson

Harwood was dismissed from the Metropolitan Police Service in September 2012 after a disciplinary hearing found that he had acted with "gross misconduct" in his actions towards Tomlinson. Tomlinson's family filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police, which paid the family an undisclosed sum in August 2013. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Maxine de Brunner issued a formal apology for "Simon Harwood's use of excessive and unlawful force, which caused Mr Tomlinson's death, and for the suffering and distress caused to his family as a result."

After the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) began a criminal inquiry, further autopsies indicated that Tomlinson had died from internal bleeding caused by blunt force trauma to the abdomen, in association with cirrhosis of the liver. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to charge Harwood, because the disagreement between the first and later pathologists meant they could not show a causal link between the death and alleged assault. That position changed in 2011; after the verdict of unlawful killing, the CPS charged Harwood with manslaughter. He was acquitted in 2012 and dismissed from the service a few months later.

Because of the conflicting conclusions of the first two, a third post-mortem was conducted on 22 April by Kenneth Shorrock on behalf of the Metropolitan police, and Ben Swift on behalf of Simon Harwood. Shorrock and Swift agreed with the results of the second autopsy. The Met's point of contact for Tomlinson's death, Detective Inspector Eddie Hall, told the pathologists before the final post-mortem that Tomlinson had fallen to the ground in front of a police van earlier in the evening, although there was no evidence that this had happened. The IPCC ruled in May 2011 that Hall had been reckless in making this claim, but had not intended to mislead.

The inquest was opened and adjourned in April 2009. The City of London coroner, Paul Matthews, expressed concern about whether he had appropriate expertise, and Peter Thornton QC, who specialises in protest law, was appointed in his place. The inquest opened on 28 March 2011 before a jury. The court heard from Kevin Channer, a cardiologist at Royal Hallamshire Hospital, who analysed electrocardiogram (ECG) data from the defibrillator paramedics had used on Tomlinson. He said the readings were inconsistent with an arrhythmic heart attack, but consistent with death from internal bleeding. Pathologist Nat Carey concurred regarding the cause of death. Graeme Alexander, a hepatologist, said that in his opinion Tomlinson had died of internal bleeding as a result of trauma to the liver after the fall. He told the court that Tomlinson had been suffering from serious liver disease, which would have made him susceptible to collapse from internal bleeding.

Giving evidence over three days, Harwood said that Tomlinson "just looked as if he was going to stay where he was forever and was almost inviting physical confrontation in terms of being moved on". He said he had not warned Tomlinson and had acted because Tomlinson was encroaching a police line, which amounted to a breach of the peace. The court heard that Tomlinson's last words after collapsing were, "they got me, the fuckers got me"; he died moments later. On 3 May 2011 the jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing, ruling that the officer—Harwood was not named for legal reasons—had used excessive and unreasonable force in hitting Tomlinson, and had acted "illegally, recklessly and dangerously".

Keir Starmer, director of the CPS, announced on 24 May 2011 that a summons for manslaughter had been issued against Harwood. He said the CPS had reviewed its decision not to prosecute because new medical evidence had emerged during the inquest, and because the various medical accounts, including that of the first pathologist, had been tested during questioning. The trial opened on 18 June 2012. Harwood entered a plea of not guilty, and was acquitted on 19 July.

Patel concluded that Tomlinson had died of coronary artery disease. His report noted "intraabdominal fluid blood about 3l with small blood clot", which was interpreted by medical experts to mean that he had found three litres of blood in Tomlinson's abdomen. This would have been around 60 per cent of Tomlinson's total blood volume, a "highly significant indicator of the cause of death", according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). In a report for the CPS a year later, on 5 April 2010, Patel wrote that he had meant "intraabdominal fluid with blood". He did not retain samples of the fluid for testing. This issue became pivotal regarding the decision not to prosecute Harwood. The City of London police issued a statement on 4 April: "A post-mortem examination found he died of natural causes. [He] suffered a sudden heart attack while on his way home from work."

The report made several recommendations, including the creation of a set of national principles emphasizing the minimum use of force at all times, and making the display of police ID a legal requirement. In February 2010 the Met announced that 8,000 of its officers had been issued with embroidered epaulettes, as several had complained that the numbers were falling off, rather than being removed deliberately.

In April 2010 The Guardian published an open letter from several public figures asking the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to proceed with a prosecution or explain its position. In July that year Keir Starmer, director of the CPS, announced that there would be no prosecution because of the medical disagreement between the three pathologists. Starmer said there was enough evidence for an assault charge, but the six-month deadline for that had expired.

In April 2010 Patel introduced an ambiguity in a second report for the CPS, saying he had found "intraabdominal fluid with blood about 3l with small blood clot" [emphasis added]. The ambiguity had to be clarified, because the second and third pathologists had relied in part on Patel's original notes to form their views. Patel was interviewed twice by the CPS. According to Starmer, Patel "maintained that the total fluid was somewhat in excess of three litres but that it was mainly ascites (a substance which forms in a damaged liver), which had been stained with blood. He had not retained the fluid nor had he sampled it in order to ascertain the proportion of blood because, he said, he had handled blood all his professional life and he knew that this was not blood but blood-stained ascites." Patel also said he had found no internal rupture that would have led to this degree of blood loss.

Tomlinson's death sparked a debate in the UK about the relationship between the police, media and public, and the independence of the IPCC. In response to the concerns, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Denis O'Connor, published a 150-page report in November 2009 that aimed to restore Britain's consent-based model of policing.

There were six protests on 1 April 2009: a security operation at ExCeL London, a Stop the War march, a Free Tibet protest outside the Chinese Embassy, a People & Planet protest, a Climate Camp protest, and a protest outside the Bank of England. Over 4,000 protesters were at the Climate Camp and the same number at the Bank of England. On 1 April over 5,500 police officers were deployed and the following day 2,800, at a cost of £7.2 million. Officers worked 14-hour shifts. They ended at midnight, slept on the floor of police stations, were not given a chance to eat, and were back on duty at 7 am. This was viewed as having contributed to the difficulties they faced.

Newspapers did not release Harwood's name until July 2010. On the day of the incident, he appeared to have removed his shoulder number and covered the bottom of his face with his balaclava. Simon Israel of Channel 4 News reported a detailed description of the officer on 22 April 2009; the IPCC sought but failed to obtain an injunction to prevent Channel 4 broadcasting the description, alleging that it might prejudice their inquiry. Fifteen months later, when announcing in July 2010 that no charges would be brought against Harwood, the Crown Prosecution Service still referred to him as "PC A." It was only on that day that newspapers decided to name him.

An inquest was opened on 9 April 2009 by Paul Matthews, the City of London coroner. Three post-mortems were conducted: on 3 April by Mohmed Saeed Sulema "Freddy" Patel for Paul Matthews; on 9 April by Nathaniel Cary for the IPCC and Tomlinson's family; and on 22 April jointly by Kenneth Shorrock for the Metropolitan police and Ben Swift for Simon Harwood. The coroner was criticized for reportedly having failed to allow IPCC investigators to attend the first, and for failing to tell Tomlinson's family that they had a legal right to attend or send a representative. The family also said he had not told them where and when it was taking place.

Patel was suspended from the government's register of pathologists in July 2009, pending a GMC inquiry. The inquiry concerned 26 charges related to postmortems in four other cases. In one case Patel was accused of having failed to spot signs of abuse on the body of a five-year-old girl who had died after a fall at home, and of having failed to check with the hospital about its investigation into her injuries. The child's body was exhumed for a second postmortem, and her mother was convicted. The hearings concluded in August 2010; Patel was suspended for three months for "deficient professional performance". In May 2011, the GMC opened an investigation into his handling of the Tomlinson post-mortem. He was struck off the medical register in August 2012.

The Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Denis O'Connor, published a 150-page report in November 2009 that aimed to restore Britain's consent-based model of policing.

In May 2011 the IPCC released three reports into Tomlinson's death, written between April 2010 and May 2011. The main report contained material revealed during the inquest. The third report detailed an allegation from Tomlinson's family that the police had offered misleading information to the pathologists before the third autopsy on 22 April 2009. The Met's point of contact for Tomlinson's death, Detective Inspector Eddie Hall, had told the pathologists that Tomlinson had fallen to the ground in front of a police van earlier in the evening, although there was no evidence to support this. The IPCC ruled that Hall had been reckless in making this claim, but had not intended to mislead the pathologists.

Tomlinson was born to Jim and Ann Tomlinson in Matlock, Derbyshire. He moved to London when he was 17 to work as a scaffolder. At the time of his death, at the age of 47, he was working casually as a vendor for the Evening Standard, London's evening newspaper. Married twice with nine children, including stepchildren, Tomlinson had a history of alcoholism, as a result of which he had been living apart from his second wife, Julia, for 13 years, and had experienced long periods of homelessness. He had been staying since 2008 in the Lindsey Hotel, a shelter for the homeless on Lindsey Street, Smithfield, EC1. At the time of his death, he was walking across London's financial district in an effort to reach the Lindsey Hotel, his way hampered at several points by police lines. The route he took was his usual way home from a newspaper stand on Fish Street Hill outside Monument tube station, where he worked with a friend, Barry Smith.

Mark Dennis QC, for the prosecution, argued that Harwood's use of force against Tomlinson had been unnecessary and unreasonable, and had caused Tomlinson's death. He argued that a "clear temporal link" between the incident and Tomlinson's collapse had been provided by the Guardian video, that Tomlinson had posed no threat, and that the use of force had been a "gratuitous act of aggression". The defence argued that Tomlinson's health was relevant. The court heard that he had liver and brain disease caused by alcohol abuse, numbness in his legs and balance problems, and that he had been treated at least 20 times between 2007 and 2009, mostly at A&E departments, related to falling while drunk. On the day he died, The Times reported, he had drunk a bottle of red wine, a small bottle of vodka and several cans of 9-per-cent super-strength lager.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) began to operate in 2004; its chair when Tomlinson died was Nick Hardwick. Created by the Police Reform Act 2002, the commission replaced the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) following public dissatisfaction with the latter's relationship with the police. Unlike the PCA, the IPCC operates independently of the Home Office, which is the Government department responsible for criminal justice and policing in England and Wales.

In May 2003 Harwood joined the Surrey Police as a constable. Surrey Police said he was frank about his history. In January 2004 he was alleged to have assaulted a man during a raid on a home. In November 2004, on his request, Harwood was transferred back to the Met. There were three more complaints after that, before the incident with Tomlinson.

Simon Harwood, the officer who unlawfully killed Tomlinson, was a police constable with the Territorial Support Group (TSG) at Larkhall Lane police station in Lambeth, South London. Harwood had faced 10 complaints in 12 years, nine of which had been dismissed or unproven. The complaint that was upheld involved unlawful access to the Police National Computer. The complaints included a road rage incident in or around 1998 while he was on sick leave, during which he reportedly tried to arrest the other driver, who alleged that Harwood had used unnecessary force. On Friday 14 September 2001, before the case was heard by a discipline board, Harwood retired on medical grounds. Three days later, on Monday 17 September, he rejoined the Met as a civilian computer worker.

In 1999, Patel was reprimanded by the General Medical Council (GMC) for having released medical details about Roger Sylvester, a man who had died in police custody. In 2002, the police dropped a criminal inquiry because Patel said the victim, Sally White, had died of a heart attack with no signs of violence, although she was reportedly found naked with bruising to her body, an injury to her head and a bite mark on her thigh. Anthony Hardy, a mentally ill alcoholic who lived in the flat in which her body was found locked in a bedroom, later murdered two women and placed their body parts in bin bags. The police investigated Patel in relation to that postmortem, but the investigation was dropped. In response to the criticism, Patel said the GMC reprimand was a long time ago, and that his findings in the Sally White case had not been contested.

David Gilbertson, a former assistant inspector who had worked for the Home Office formulating policing policy, told The New York Times that the British police used to act with the sanction of the public, but that tactics had changed after a series of violent assaults on officers in the 1990s. Now dressing in military-style uniforms and equipped with anti-stab vests, extendable metal batons and clubs that turn into handcuffs, an entire generation of officers has come to regard the public as the enemy, the newspaper said.

O'Connor wrote that there had been a hardening of police attitudes, with officers believing that proportionality meant reciprocity. The deployment of officers in riot gear had become a routine response to lawful protest, largely the result of an ignorance of the law and a lack of leadership from the Home Office and police chiefs. Officers were being trained to use their riot shields as weapons. Police forces across the country differed in their training, the equipment they had access to, and their understanding of the law. The failure to understand the relevant legislation was in part due to its complexity, the report said, with 90 amendments to the Public Order Act passed since 1986.

Tomlinson's death sparked a discussion about the nature of Britain's policing and the relationship between the police, public, media and IPCC. The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, dismissed the criticism of the police as "an orgy of cop bashing". The death was compared to others that had each acted as a watershed in the public's perception of policing, including that of Blair Peach (1979), Stephen Lawrence (1993) and Jean Charles de Menezes (2005). The IPCC was criticized for having taken seven days from Tomlinson's death, and five days after hearing evidence that police may have been involved, to remove the City of London police from the investigation.

At the time of Tomlinson's death, Patel was on the Home Office's register of accredited forensic pathologists. He qualified as a doctor at the University of Zambia in 1974, and registered to practice in the UK in 1988. The Metropolitan Police had written to the Home Office in 2005 raising concerns about his work. At the time of Tomlinson's death he did not have a contract with the police to conduct post-mortems in cases of suspicious death.

Ian Tomlinson (7 February 1962 – 1 April 2009) was a newspaper vendor who collapsed and died in the City of London after being struck by a police officer during the 2009 G-20 summit protests. After an inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing, the officer, Simon Harwood, was prosecuted for manslaughter. He was found not guilty but was dismissed from the police service for gross misconduct. Following civil proceedings, the Metropolitan Police Service paid Tomlinson's family an undisclosed sum and acknowledged that Harwood's actions had caused Tomlinson's death.