Ian Tomlinson death

[David]

Some good news, as finally we may actually see some justice;

 

Britain's most senior prosecutor has said he was considering whether to prosecute the police officer who attacked Ian Tomlinson for manslaughter after an inquest jury found that the newspaper seller had been unlawfully killed.

 

Tomlinson, 47, had been trying to walk home from work through the G20 demonstrations near the Bank of England when he was attacked from behind by a Metropolitan police constable, Simon Harwood, a member of the Met's Territorial Support Group (TSG).

 

Returning their verdict after three hours of deliberation on Tuesday, jurors said Tomlinson died of internal bleeding in the abdomen after being struck with a baton and pushed to the ground with "excessive and unreasonable" force on 7.20pm on 1 April 2009.

 

Within minutes of the verdict being announced, the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, said a "thorough review" of his earlier decision not to bring criminal prosecutions against Harwood had begun.

 

"That review will now take place and will be thorough," he said. "It will take into account all of the evidence now available, including any new evidence that emerged at the inquest, the issues left by the coroner to the jury and the conclusions they reached. The review will be conducted as quickly as is compatible with the care and rigour required in a thorough exercise."

 

For legal reasons, the jury's verdict could not name Harwood or apportion blame. The verdict, however, did say that Tomlinson's death came after he was "fatally injured. This was as a result of a baton strike from behind and a push in the back by a police officer which caused Mr Tomlinson to fall heavily," the verdict said. "Both the baton strike and the push were excessive and unreasonable. As a result, Mr Tomlinson suffered internal bleeding which led to his collapse within a few minutes and his subsequent death."

 

Their finding noted Tomlinson, a father of nine, was walking away from police, obeying orders and posed "no threat" when he was struck by Harwood.

 

There were shouts of "yes" from Tomlinson's family when the verdict was returned.

 

His son Paul King said afterwards: "We've got a long way ahead of us. We've been let down for two years. It's been proven that Ian was killed unlawfully. Now we'd like to go to court and continue with the manslaughter charges."

 

The Met expressed "profound condolences" to Tomlinson's family, saying in a statement: "It is a matter of deep regret that the actions of an MPS officer have been found to have caused the death of a member of the public."

 

The Tomlinson inquest verdict comes just over a year after the Met was forced to accept one of its officers almost certainly killed Blair Peach, an anti-fascist protester, at a protest in Southall, west London, in 1979.

 

The Met kept a report into Peach's death secret for more than 30 years. It revealed he was killed by an officer from the Special Patrol Group

[Happ Hazzard]

Have fun finding anyone willing to become a police officer now. Crime will continue to rise even further as the police become even more of a "service" and less of a FORCE. Well done liberals. No doubt it won't be your homes and children that will suffer as a result, but those of normal working people.

[David]

Have fun finding anyone willing to become a police officer now. Crime will continue to rise even further as the police become even more of a "service" and less of a FORCE. Well done liberals. No doubt it won't be your homes and children that will suffer as a result, but those of normal working people.

You're going over the top a bit there, Happ. I think the lesson to be learned here is that having a shiny badge & a baton doesn't give you the right to take matters into your own hands whenever you feel like it.

 

Maybe some police officers (and it is a minority of officers it has to be said) will think twice in future.

[Devon Malcolm]

Have fun finding anyone willing to become a police officer now. Crime will continue to rise even further as the police become even more of a "service" and less of a FORCE. Well done liberals. No doubt it won't be your homes and children that will suffer as a result, but those of normal working people.

 

Yes, Happ, I'm really shiteing myself on behalf of my family because some over-zealous Cockney copper tonked some bloke with his truncheon. You're an absolute fucking idiot.

 

But in some ways, I hope you're right, because then if the police force really does run out of recruits, WHICH IS OBVIOUSLY GOING TO HAPPEN, then there will be no-one around to arrest me for fly-tipping old copies of the Guardian in your front garden.

[Happ Hazzard]

If police don't have the right to take matters into their own hands, who the hell does? Who do the police call when things go wrong? The army?

 

What I suspect will happen is there will be a major riot in London at an upcoming protest, businesses will be destroyed, people will die, and the police will be blamed for not doing anything. Then the attitude will change again and the police will be given reasonable powers to control rioters, which include pushing someone in the chest.

[Surf Digby]

AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

[chokeout]

What I suspect will happen is there will be a major riot in London at an upcoming protest, businesses will be destroyed, people will die, and the police will be blamed for not doing anything.

 

Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!

Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...

The dead rising from the grave!

Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

[Dead Mike]

What kind of lefty, liberal hell are we living in when a policeman can't fatally strike an innocent man from behind? It's political correctness gone mad!! Nobody will want to join the constabulary now! After all, killing without reproach is the driving factor behind most people considering a career in the force

[bobbins]

Amazing.

[The King Of Swing]

So says the book of Happ.

[Devon Malcolm]

"We can't have hot tea anymore, in case it upsets a Sikh!"

[Keith Houchen]

If police don't have the right to take matters into their own hands, who the hell does?

Nobody, that's the whole point. Well, except for neil.

[David]

If police don't have the right to take matters into their own hands, who the hell does?

This is the kind of thing that happens when the police are given the right to take matters into their own hands;

 

A British Muslim has told a court how specialist police officers had beat him so badly in a dawn raid at his home that he had thought he was going to die.

 

Southwark crown court heard from Babar Ahmad, 37, how he was the subject of a prolonged and vicious attack, starting in the bedroom of his home and continuing in a police van and at a London police station. Ahmad was under surveillance, and the officers had been told he had been trained as a terrorist and fought in Bosnia, the court has been told.

 

Giving evidence on the second day of the trial of four officers who deny charges of assaulting Ahmad, he said that, after he had been repeatedly kicked and punched, one officer put him in a headlock in the back of the police van.

 

The jury heard from him that one officer straddled him and said: "You will remember this day for the rest of your life, you fucking bastard. Do you understand me?" Ahmad said: "He squeezed and kept on squeezing. I remember the pressure to the side of my neck. He squeezed and squeezed and squeezed, and held it in that position.

 

"I thought he would hold it for a few seconds, and, if I hold my breath, I could bear it and he would let go. But he didn't let go. I was panicking because I couldn't do anything or move. It's like drowning. There is nothing you can do. He kept squeezing to the point where I thought 'This guy is going to kill me. He wants to kill me. I am going to die in this van'."

 

Medical examinations carried out four days later showed blood in Ahmad's urine and that there had been bleeding in the middle of both of his ears. Shortly after the arrest in December 2003, he was released without charge.

 

The court has heard that in the 1990s Ahmad had travelled to Bosnia to fight with the Muslim forces, and was under surveillance prior to his 2003 arrest. In 2004, he was re-arrested, following a request from the United States, over claims that he helped raise money to fund terrorism. He has been in custody in the UK ever since.

 

Earlier the jury heard Ahmad describe how he had been in bed with his wife at 5am when officers from the Met's territorial support group smashed their way into his south London home.

 

Moments later the officers, dressed in full protective clothing, entered his bedroom, where they carried out what he called a "sustained and very violent assault".

 

"It was complete confusion and shock. I had just woken up and lots of things were going through my mind: 'Why have they come up here? Have they mixed me up with someone else? Is there a robber hiding in my house or have they come to arrest me?' All these things were going through my mind."

 

The prosecutor, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, asked if he had fought or struggled.

 

Ahmad, 37, replied: "I was completely compliant, because I had made my mind up when they came towards me I was going to co-operate and reassure them they had nothing to fear from me whatsoever

 

"At no point did I struggle or make it difficult for them. At no point did I say anything to them, other than: 'Can you stop hitting me' I didn't make it hard for them or provoke them whatsoever."

 

At one stage, he told the jury, he was pushed into a praying position and asked "where is your God now ... pray to him."

 

The security service, MI5, had Ahmad under surveillance and had bugged the room. A recording of the raid was played to the seven men and five women of the jury but the contents were largely inaudible..

 

The court had heard that the attack continued in a police van and at Charing Cross police station.

 

Police constables Mark Jones, Roderick James-Bowen and Nigel Cowley and Detective Constable John Donohue deny assaulting Ahmad. The arrest took place less than a year after another terror suspect, Kamel Bourgass, stabbed an anti-terror squad officer to death during a raid on a house in Manchester.

 

The hearing continues.

Source: The Guardian