British policeman sacked over G20 protest death

A Scotland Yard officer who was cleared by a British jury of killing a man caught up in the G20 protests in London in 2009 was on Monday sacked after being found guilty of "gross misconduct". Constable Simon Harwood, 45, was judged at a police disciplinary hearing over the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson, which for the first time in history was held in public.
Harwood was accused of hitting 47-year-old Tomlinson with a baton and pushing him to the ground during the demonstrations against the Group of 20 summit in the British capital three years ago. Tomlinson collapsed and later died following the incident, but the disciplinary panel said it would not consider whether the officer's actions caused the fatality. Tomlinson's widow stormed out of the hearing, calling it a "whitewash".
Speaking afterwards, Tomlinson's stepson Paul King accused the police of "showboating". "I think it's pointless, it hasn't proved anything to us," he said. "We still haven't got any answer from this. I think its diabolical. It's like we're back at day one. "We will carry on, it isn't going to be the last of it." The family plan to take civil action against Harwood.
The panel was told that Harwood, who is currently suspended, had twice offered to resign from the force over the incident. The Metropolitan Police's Deputy Assistant Commissioner Maxine de Brunner revealed after the hearing that the force had made an undisclosed offer of damages to the Tomlinson family.
She said the disciplinary process "has resulted in the maximum penalty that was ever available to the panel, dismissal due to gross misconduct". "That leaves no ambiguity as to how the Met views the actions of Simon Harwood," she added. Tomlinson died on April 1, 2009 after he found his usual route home blocked by thousands of anti-capitalist protesters and riot police in the City of London financial district. During the manslaughter trial that concluded in July, Harwood admitted he was "wrong" to hit and push the father-of-nine, who had slept rough for a number of years and was drunk at the time, but said he did not realise how ill Tomlinson was.