London police ‘unlawfully’ killed passerby during G20 demo

A London newspaper seller who died after being shoved to the ground by a policeman during G20 protests in 2009 was killed unlawfully, a British inquest has found.

Police officer Simon Harwood now faces criminal proceedings for what the inquest described as “excessive and unreasonable” force in hitting the man with a baton and pushing him to the ground, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The victim, Ian Tomlinson, a 47-year-old newspaper seller who had been homeless for much of his life, dropped dead on the fringes of the G20 demonstrations in central London on April 1 2009.

He was not actually protesting but rather trying to make his way to his home.

The death became an international controversy after New York fund manager Christopher La Jaunie gave footage he had taken of the police confrontation to Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

The footage showed Harwood hit Tomlinson with a baton when Tomlinson’s back was turned and his hands were in his pockets, and then shove Tomlinson violently to the ground.

Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service – the equivalent of a district attorney – decided not to press charges against Harwood after a pathologist, Freddy Patel, claimed Tomlinson had died of a heart attack.

However Patel’s evidence was discredited by a string of other experts at the inquest, all of whom said he died from internal bleeding. Possible criminal charges could now be revived, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Tomlinson was attempting get home and was turned away by a line of police who were battling G20 protesters.

Security images from CCTV and police helicopter footage, as well as hand-held video recordings show Tomlinson staggering away after the confrontation.

He eventually collapsed and, according to witnesses, muttered, “they got me, the f***ers got me,” before dying minutes later.

Other police officers gave evidence at the inquest. One officer, Constable Kerry Smith said: “He (Mr Tomlinson) sat up and looked towards us and he said ‘I just wanted to go home.’”

Harwood apologised during the inquest to Tomlinson’s family for “any way” he may be responsible for the death.

But the relatives’ lawyer said Harwood had told “half truths” and “deliberately painted a false picture of Mr Tomlinson.”

Tomlinson was an alcoholic with a series of medical complaints who had slept rough for 20 years.