Death of Ian Tomlinson
Ian Tomlinson remonstrates with police after being pushed to the ground, minutes before he died
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| Date | 1 April 2009 |
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| Location | Cornhill, City of London |
| Reporter | Paul Lewis, The Guardian |
| Charges | PC Simon Harwood Manslaughter, May 2011 |
| Trial | 18 June–19 July 2012 Southwark Crown Court |
| Verdict | Not guilty |
| Awards | Bevins Prize for outstanding investigative journalism, and Reporter of the Year, for Paul Lewis |
| Footage | First video, published by The Guardian |
| Regina -v- Simon Harwood | |
|---|---|
Courthouse at 1 English Grounds, London SE1
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| Court | Southwark Crown Court |
| Started | 18 June 2012 |
| Decided | 19 July 2012 |
| Verdict | Not guilty |
| Defendant | Simon Harwood |
| Charge | Manslaughter |
| Prosecution | Mark Dennis QC |
| Defence | Patrick Gibbs QC |
| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | The Honourable Mr Justice Fulford |
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.
The first autopsy concluded that Tomlinson had suffered a heart attack, but a week later The Guardian published video of Harwood, a constable with London's Metropolitan Police Service, striking Tomlinson on the leg with a baton, then pushing him to the ground. Tomlinson was not a protester, and at the time he was struck was trying to make his way home through the police cordons. He walked away after the incident, but collapsed and died minutes later.
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.
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.
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.
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