Ian Tomlinson was victim of ‘thuggish’ attack, court told

A police officer killed the newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson in a gratuitous act of aggression “akin to thuggish behaviour”, a court has heard. PC Simon Harwood is accused of striking Tomlinson with a baton and pushing him to the ground as he prepared to walk away from a line of officers policing G20 protests in London on 1 April 2009. Original Source: The Guardian

Tomlinson, 47, who had been trying to head home but found his usual route blocked, collapsed within minutes and later died. Harwood, 45, of Carshalton, in Surrey, maintains that he used reasonable force and denies manslaughter.

Tomlinson was facing away from Harwood and would have been taken completely by surprise when he was struck, 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 had spotted trying to graffiti a police van, prosecutors said. His “blood was up” as a result, and the scene was set for his encounter with Tomlinson, they argued.

Opening the case against Harwood at London’s Southwark crown court, Mark Dennis QC said: “The assault upon Ian Tomlinson had been an unnecessary and unreasonable use of force by the defendant. Ian Tomlinson was not posing any threat to the defendant or any other police officer. He was displaying no aggression towards anyone nor even making any provocative comments.”

Harwood’s reaction was “wholly disproportionate” in the circumstances, the court heard. Dennis said: “There had been no need to use any force upon Tomlinson, let alone a forceful baton strike followed by a powerful push to the back that sent Ian Tomlinson flying to the ground.

“The display of force has all the hallmarks of a gratuitous act of aggression by a lone officer whose blood was up, having lost the self-control to be expected of a police officer in such circumstances, and who was going to stand no truck from anyone who appeared to be a protester and to be getting in his way.”

The trial continues.