The police officer caught on film attacking Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests in London could face manslaughter charges after a second postmortem concluded that the newspaper vendor died from internal bleeding and not a heart attack.
The dramatic new evidence, made public on Friday, provoked an immediate response from the victim’s family, who said that they had been “badly misled” by police.
It emerged on Friday that the London Metropolitan police officer who was suspended from duty has now been interviewed under caution on suspicion of manslaughter by investigators from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
This came 10 days after the Guardian newspaper first revealed footage of Tomlinson being struck and pushed to the ground minutes before he collapsed and died in the old City of London, the British capital’s financial district.
The New York fund manager who handed the Guardian the video evidence said that he felt vindicated by the findings.
“Now I’m glad I came forward. It’s possible Mr Tomlinson’s death would have been swept under the rug otherwise. You needed something incontrovertible. In this case it was the video,” he said.
Tomlinson, a 47-year-old newspaper vendor, had been attempting to walk home from work the when he collapsed and died at about 7:25pm on April 1. Moments earlier he had been attacked from behind by a constable from the Met’s territorial support group near the Bank of England.
The first postmortem results — which were released by police — said Tomlinson had died of a heart attack. The second postmortem was ordered by the family’s legal team and the IPCC after the footage was broadcast.
Last night’s developments will place enormous pressure on the IPCC. Initially, the watchdog allowed City of London police to conduct its own inquiry, even though witnesses were coming forward to say they had seen Tomlinson being in contact with police.
The second postmortem was conducted Nat Cary, who was able to scrutinize video evidence before conducting his examination. In a statement last night, City of London coroners court said Cary had provisionally concluded that internal bleeding was the cause of Tomlinson’s death.
“Dr Cary’s opinion is that the cause of death was abdominal hemorrhage. The cause of the hemorrhage remains to be ascertained,” he said.
“Dr Cary accepts that there is evidence of coronary atherosclerosis but states that in his opinion its nature and extent is unlikely to have contributed to the cause of death,” Cary said.
Jules Carey, the lawyer acting for Tomlinson’s family, said: “The video footage of the unprovoked and vicious assault on Ian by the police officer would easily justify charges of assault being brought against the officer. The findings of Dr Nat Cary significantly increase the likelihood that the officer will now face the more serious charge of manslaughter.”
On Friday, politicians and campaigners called for the IPCC to conduct its investigation with renewed urgency. London Mayor Boris Johnson said that the watchdog should now come to “a fast and transparent conclusion.”
Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Chris Huhne, said: “This is an alarming finding. It suggests that Mr Tomlinson’s treatment by the police officer caught on video may have been the final contributing factor in his death. These findings put further pressure on the IPCC to investigate the matter with all urgency.”
Neither the IPCC nor City of London police made any mention of the injuries or abdominal blood found by the pathologist Freddy Patel when they released results of the first postmortem. City of London police said only that Tomlinson had “suffered a sudden heart attack while on his way home from work.”
Tomlinson’s son, Paul King, said: “We believe we were badly misled by police about the possible role they played in Ian’s death. First we were told that there had been no contact with the police, then we were told that he died of a heart attack. Now we know that he was violently assaulted by a police officer and died from internal bleeding. As time goes on we hope that the full truth about how Ian died will be made known.”
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
RSS