Monday 5 August 2013

Tomlinson Family Response to Police Apology and Statement by DAC de Brunner


Julia Tomlinson on behalf of her family has responded to the announcement of DAC Maxine de Brunner saying:

“Today’s apology and admission by the Metropolitan Police that their officer unlawfully killed Ian marks the end of our campaign and legal case.

On 1st April 2009 when we first heard news of Ian’s death we simply wanted to know what had happened. We were completely in the dark until a week after his death when we saw the video capturing the violent assault on him by PC Harwood. It was, and still is a shocking video. We knew that Ian had been unlawfully killed by the officer as soon as we saw the video, but we had to first go through the long legal process of taking apart untruthful accounts given by PC Harwood and other police officers. We should not have had to do this.

The last four years have been a really hard uphill battle. We have had to deal with many obstacles and set backs. After the ‘unlawful killing’ verdict at the inquest it was unimaginable to us that PC Harwood could be acquitted of the criminal charge of manslaughter. We will never understand that verdict, but at least today’s public admission of unlawful killing by the Metropolitan Police is the final verdict, and it is as close as we are going to get to justice.

It has been hard to keep going sometimes. We’ve taken strength from the support that we’ve received from so many people who have walked with us and sent us kind messages over the years. It has meant a lot to us. Thank you.

We would also like to thank Lucy Apps for the compassion she showed to Ian when she tried to save his life. Christopher le Jaunie and Paul Lewis for releasing the video that forced the investigation to face the truth; Estelle for organising our campaign, and Jules Carey and his legal team for never backing down in the legal battles.

It will always be painful for us that Ian died so violently, but at least he is at rest now, and the force has publicly acknowledged the truth. We hope that lessons have been learned and that other families will be spared the tragedy and ordeal that we have had to face. We loved Ian and will always keep his memory alive by talking about him and sharing our memories with each other as we finally start looking to the future again”.




Monday 17 September 2012

Statement on today's disciplinary hearing of PC Simon Harwood

Ian's family attended today's Metropolitan Police disciplinary hearing of PC Simon Harowwd, held in public in west London. Speaking on behalf of the Ian Tomlinson Family Campaign, Ian's son Paul King said:
"We came here expecting a disciplinary hearing. There has been no hearing. We expected the Met to rule on whether it's officer killed Ian. The Met has basically gone 'no comment'.

It's a whitewash. It's like they have just let PC Harwood resign. The conflicting verdicts of the inquest and criminal court still need to be resolved.

We haven't given up, we will now be looking to the civil courts for the final judgement on who killed our dad."

Saturday 8 September 2012

PC Simon Harwood Misconduct Hearing

Metropolitan Police internal disciplinary proceedings to consider whether PC Simon Harwood is guilty of gross misconduct will begin on Monday 17th September and are expected to last for up to four weeks.

The hearings are open but the public need to apply for spaces to attend before Monday 10th September. The link giving information on the hearings and how to apply are here.

Thursday 23 August 2012

Pathologist Freddy Patel struck off

Pathologist Freddy Patel, who carried out the first post-mortem on Ian Tominson has today been struck off for a catalogue of errors after a tribunal earlier this week found him to have been dishonest as well as incompetent.

For the latest news developments see the article in the Guardian today.

Julia Tomlinson said today "We aren't surprised he has been struck off. It is more of a surprise that he was able to work as a pathologist for so long and that he was selected to do the post mortem on Ian. We are pleased that he will not be able to put any more families through the ordeal he caused us, but the damage he has done can't now be undone."

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Pathologist Freddy Patel "not fit to practise" - Tomlinson family response

The pathologist who conducted the first post-mortem tests on Ian Tomlinson and concluded he had died of heart problems has been found "not fit to practise" by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service today.

Julia Tomlinson responded today saying "The incompetence and dishonesty of Freddy Patel helped PC Harwood and gave us an uphill battle for justice from the start. He mislead everyone saying that Ian had died of a heart attack when in fact he had died of internal bleeding. It's good that people can see some of the things we have been up against. Patel has a lot to answer for and I would like to know why with all the good pathologists there are he was selected to do the first post mortem"

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