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Simon Harwood: 'I was wrong to hit and push Ian Tomlinson' | Simon Harwood: 'I was wrong to hit and push Ian Tomlinson' |
(about 6 hours later) | |
A police officer accused of killing a man during the G20 protests in London would "not have gone anywhere near him" had he known the man was an infirm alcoholic making his way home, rather than a potentially violent protester, a court has heard. | |
"Now I know all that I know ... and how poorly he was, I am sorry I got it wrong. I should not have hit him with a baton," PC Simon Harwood said of his strike and push against Ian Tomlinson on the evening of 1 April 2009. | |
Asked by Mark Dennis QC, prosecuting, what he would have done had he known Tomlinson's intentions and health at the time, Harwood replied: "I would not have gone anywhere near him." | |
Continuing his evidence at Southwark crown court, Harwood – a member of the Metropolitan police's elite Territorial Support Group (TSG) public order unit – insisted repeatedly that he made the best decision he could at the time, in the context of a day of disturbances connected to the meeting of G20 leaders in London. | |
At one point during a morning of sometimes heated questioning at Southwark crown court, some of Tomlinson's children gasped and walked out from the public gallery after Harwood described a firearm as one possible tactical option he could have used in a hypothetical public order situation. | |
Asked by Dennis to list the potential methods open to a TSG officer to move someone on, Harwood listed first a baton strike to the arm or leg, then a push, kicks or punches, CS spray, handcuffs, or a voice command. | |
Questioning the order in which the officer named the options, Dennis said: "You have gone straight to violence, force." Harwood responded: "No, I have gone for reasonable force." | |
Asked to cite more options, he named the use of a firearm – at which point some of Tomlinson's family left the court – then use of a shield, or "life-threatening strikes". | |
Harwood is accused of the manslaughter of 47-year-old Tomlinson, who was attempting to find a way through police lines to the hostel where he lived when he collapsed in the street, dying shortly afterwards. | |
Several days later video footage ran on the Guardian's website, taken by a US man in London on business. It showed a riot officer, later identified as Harwood, strike Tomlinson on the back of the legs before shoving him hard to the ground. Tomlinson was walking away from the advancing line of police at the time. | |
The prosecution alleges that the fall caused internal bleeding associated with Tomlinson's liver, which killed him. | |
The effects were exacerbated by Tomlinson's long-standing alcoholism, the court has heard. Tomlinson had been drinking heavily on the day and appeared unresponsive to earlier commands, other witnesses said. | |
Harwood, 45, from Carshalton in Surrey, denies manslaughter on the grounds that he used reasonable force. | Harwood, 45, from Carshalton in Surrey, denies manslaughter on the grounds that he used reasonable force. |
Under persistent questioning from Dennis, which at one point saw Harwood's wife, Helen, weep in the public gallery, the policeman repeatedly insisted that given the short space of time and situation he had made the correct decision on how to move Tomlinson, who he had decided was obstructing police efforts to clear a pedestrian passageway by the Royal Exchange in the City. | |
Asked why he did not consider, for example, moving Tomlinson away more gently, Harwood said: "I did not have time to consider that option." | |
Asked why he opted for a baton strike followed very quickly by a push, he said: "Because that is the course of action I decided to take." | |
Other officers had already ordered Tomlinson to move and he had not, Harwood added. | |
Dennis repeatedly challenged Harwood's assertion that he believed at the time he was in a "riot", showing videos of the passageway, containing few people. | |
Dennis said: "I suggest you are not telling the truth at all. This is your last line of defence, having been caught out, on video, acting improperly." | |
Dennis asked whether Harwood's tactic was to "strike first and ask questions afterwards". This was unfair, the officer replied. | |
The trial continues. | The trial continues. |