Wednesday 6 April 2011

Inquest Day 5: 1st April 2011*: Summary points

* Before we blog about the inquest today, it’s important to us to say rest in peace to Ian. Today was the 2nd anniversary of Ian’s death. Ian’s family laid flowers in the morning at the spot where he died and Rev. Phil Summers kindly said a few words.

At the inquest today, witnesses, either giving evidence in person or via their statements being read out, included:

• Guiseppe de Ceccio, who witnessed PC Harwood push Ian from a nearby office window. He made two statements about the incident, one described a “pretty aggressive push” and the other described how Ian was pushed “pretty harshly”.

• PC Kerry Smith, who saw PC Harwood push Ian. In a statement she made after the incident she said “I was shocked by the forcefulness of the push on Mr Tomlinson”.

• PC Nicholas Jackson, who was part of the police cordon when Ian was pushed and witnessed the incident. Although he saw Ian get pushed, he was “too busy” looking at protesters to recall whether Ian spoke afterwards.

• PC Jonathan Bish, a dog-handler who was on the police cordon when Ian was pushed. He explained how dog-handlers go to the front in policing situations as there is a risk to anyone in front of a dog. He described how PC Harwood moved in front of him and this caused his dog to slip its collar.

• PC Steven Discombe, who saw PC Harwood strike Ian with a baton and described how this action was delivered in “perfect training stance”.

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