G20 Death Trial: Tomlinson 'Was Obstructive'

The policeman accused of manslaughter at the G20 protest has told jurors the man he hit was deliberately obstructing him and his colleagues.

PC Simon Harwood claimed he struck newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson with his baton on the thigh "to cause maximum effect but minimum injury".

The officer said he then pushed the 47-year-old alcoholic "firmly" and was surprised when he fell over.

PC Harwood, 45, said he and his colleagues had been told to clear everyone away from a pedestrian area near the Bank of England where protesters had gathered during the G20 demonstration in April, 2009.

He told the court: "He was obstructing us and not allowing us to achieve our objective.

"I believe he was doing it in purpose. Colleagues shouted at him to move.

"He was looking at police like he wanted them to move him away."

Mr Tomlinson, who was an alcoholic and slept rough for a number of years, walked about 75 yards before he collapsed and later died.

Harwood denies manslaughter on the grounds that he used reasonable force.

He told the court that before coming across Mr Tomlinson he thought the protesters were targeting him after he tried to arrest a man for scrawling graffiti on a police carrier.

"They seemed to be goading me and shouting at me, pointing their fingers at me," he said.

"To me it was as if everyone was out for me because of what I had done trying to arrest the graffiti man."

In a speech to open the defence case, Patrick Gibbs QC told jurors they were the only members of the public who would ever know the full facts of what happened that day.

He said: "How shocking in Britain that in all likelihood only 12 people will ever know what happened; the full facts of that day.

"You are the only 12 members of the public who have a proper understanding of what happened that night.

"That of course is a privileged position, but also is quite a heavy responsibility."

Mr Gibbs said Harwood, who had been a specialist in public order since 2004, was frightened by what was happening.

"It is said that his blood was up, and that's meant to be a criticism,” he said.

"If that means that he was frightened and his heart was pumping and his pulse was racing and he was breathing heavily and he was sweating, then yes his blood was up.

"I defy anyone to have been through that and not have had his pulse racing his heart pumping, to be sweating, to be frightened."

He said that the baton strike was a "bad decision", but this was not what caused Mr Tomlinson's death from internal bleeding, which caused a heart attack.

"With the benefit of hindsight and all the footage, using the baton was a bad decision.

“But it certainly did not kill Mr Tomlinson. It certainly did not contribute to his death, because it did not cause him to fall over and that's what the Crown's theory is about the cause of death."

He went on: "People do make mistakes. It's not very fashionable to say that, it's fashionable to say that everything bad that happens is somebody's fault."

Earlier, Inspector Timothy Williams told the court that Harwood was "shocked" when he saw footage of him pushing Mr Tomlinson on television.

"He watched it and he said to me that he thought he was the officer concerned.

"He had his head in his hands, he was facing towards the ground and sort of looking up to me. He was obviously shocked."

Mr Williams agreed that Harwood had looked "horrified" when he watched the film clip.

The court heard that a message had come from senior City officers to: "Treat the lawful protesters with kid gloves but deal with those using violence with an iron fist."

In his own notes about that day, Harwood said that before he came across Mr Tomlinson, other protesters were rioting and throwing missiles at him.

He unsuccessfully tried to arrest a man for writing ACAB - short for "all cops are bastards" - on a police carrier, and found about 100 demonstrators chasing him.

Harwood, who had no riot shield, said he was in fear for his safety and began hitting protesters with his baton because they were trying to punch and kick him.

"I do not remember how many protesters I struck, but done (sic) so in order to prevent any further rioting and to preserve my safety," he said.

Later he gave a statement to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) in which he said his use of force against Mr Tomlinson was necessary.

"In the context in which this engagement occurred, if this was me, the use of force was necessary, proportionate and reasonable in all the prevailing circumstances,” he said.

“It's extremely difficult now to recall this brief, almost momentary event clearly.”

Harwood, who joined the Met in 1995, said he had no real briefing about what was expected to happen at the protests that day.

However he understood that they were expected to be "substantial, unruly and potentially extremely violent", jurors were told.

In a statement made in July 2009, he said he believed Mr Tomlinson, who was drunk at the time, "posed a form of risk in the midst of a highly volatile demonstration".

Harwood said that Mr Tomlinson seemed "defiant" and the officer thought he was "deliberately failing to comply with an order to move".

Harwood "instinctively" decided that some force was necessary, and he hit Mr Tomlinson on the upper thigh with his baton and pushed him on the upper right shoulder.

The statement read: "I was surprised when he fell, I hadn't pushed him that hard.

"He then sat on the pavement on his backside with his hands in a gesture as if to say 'what did you do that for?"'

Harwood denies manslaughter and will continue his evidence on Tuesday.

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