G20 officer may face manslaughter charges

A police officer has been interviewed under caution after a post-mortem showed a protester he allegedly assaulted subsequently died from an abdominal haemorrhage. An earlier post-mortem showed Ian Tomlinson had died of a heart attack shortly after being struck by an unnamed officer as he tried to make his way home during the G20 protests. But Dr Nat Cary, who conducted the second post-mortem, rejected the findings and said there had been internal bleeding.

Ian Tomlinson was not taking part in the protests of April 1st and merely trying to get home after a day of working as a newspaper seller outside Monument station.

There have been accusations that police may have been ordered to use excessive force during the G20 protests. But former commander specialist operations at Scotland Yard Roy Ramm insisted that no orders would have been given to use violence. “Every police officer is responsible for his or her actions,” he told Sky News.

Although he welcomed an investigation he said the police had a difficult job to do as they faced “80 or 90 different groups” with differing agendas. Policing such protests “was almost impossible.”

Ian Tomlinson's stepson has called for answers. “First we were told there was no contact. Then there was a heart attack. Now we’re told he died of internal bleeding following an assault,” Paul King said, “We want the truth” [Guardian / BBC / Sky News]. Tonight on Channel Four News former London mayor Ken Livingstone said the case raised many worries. "It gets murkier by the minute," he said.

Ian Tomlinson’s death has already raised concerns as to policing methods employed during the G20 protests. The possibility that a Metropolitan Police officer might be charged with manslaughter will heighten those concerns. It has already emerged that the Independent Police Complaints Commission has received more than 145 complaints [BBC]. At least 70 are connected to assault. The Metropolitan Police may well be facing further charges.

Second G20 assault spurs MetPol inquiry

The Independents Police Complaints Commission [IPCC] are to investigate an alleged assault on a young female by a police officer at G20 protests in London. The incident has prompted inquiries into police procedures as well as the behaviour of some officers.

Footage shows assault

Video footage has emerged which shows the officer striking the protester about the face before hitting her on the leg with his baton [You Tube]. During the incident the protester is heard to shout obscenities at the police apparently in anger at another demonstrator who was pushed by other officers [BBC / Sky News / This is London].

Second investigation by IPCC

The incident is the second such accusation of police brutality. The IPCC are already investigating an assault on Ian Tomlinson a newspaper seller who was pushed to the ground by a police officer as he walked through the city on 1st April. Tomlinson later died from a heart attack.

The following day many protesters had gathered in the city some expressing anger at the death of Ian Tomlinson. Many were contained by cordons of police in an procedure known as kettling. The controversial crowd control method has been criticised as being inhumane.

Police methods criticised

Speaking on Sky News recently, former Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddock described the procedure as a “tried and tested method” of crowd control. However some believe kettling only serves to antagonise a potentially volatile gathering of protesters. There are also issues of human rights with some pointing out the problems arising after several hours without food, water or toilet facilities. The containment method also appears to be counter to Article 5 of the Human Rights Act which sets out the right not to be deprived of liberty except in five well-defined exceptions. The exceptions concern detention to effect a lawful arrest or compliance with a court order, detention of a child who is unsupervised or of a person in breach of immigration rules, or "the lawful detention of persons for the prevention of the spreading of infectious diseases, of persons of unsound mind, alcoholics or drug addicts or vagrants" [Guardian].

Containment tactics were first used over a long period of time on 1 May 2001 when an anti-capitalist protest at Oxford Circus was corralled by the police for seven hours in bad weather and with no access to toilet facilities.

On 1st April some groups of protesters were contained for more than seven hours. And it wasn’t just supposed violent or unruly protesters who were kettled in. One peaceful protester complained to Sky News that she had been prevented from leaving despite explaining she needed to return home to pick up her child from school. Even members of the press found themselves unable to escape. Journalists not holding a UK press card found themselves in the same predicament as the demonstrators. “My colleagues from China couldn’t get out,” one journalist told tvnewswatch. “I managed to get out by showing my press card but they only had Chinese press cards” Ma, who works for a news agency, said.

Tom Brake, Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton & Wallington, writing in the Times said that even British journalists were not allowed to leave despite offering legitimate credentials and contact information [The Times].

Eventually people were released but only after complying to “police requests” for name, address and a submission to being photographed. Amongst protesters the tactic is widely believed to dissuade people from attending future demonstrations and effectively stifle the right to democratic protest [Guardian].

Officers suspended as police launch review

Both officers involved in the two IPCC investigations have been suspended and now the Metropolitan Police has said it is to review its kettling policy. “A number of complaints have been raised in relation to the tactic of containment" Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said today. He said that he has asked Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary to review policing tactics [BBC]. It remains to be seen what the findings might be given that the House of Lords have previously rejected claims to compensation by demonstrators kettled in during the 2001 protests. The Lords ruled that the police had behaved lawfully on that occasion.

IPCC to investigate G20 protest death

The Metropolitan Police will be once again attempting to defend their actions and an apparent tissue of lies after footage released tonight showed police officers pushing a man to the floor who later died of a heart attack. Ian Tomlinson had been returning from work as a newspaper vendor outside Monument station on the day of the G20 protests when he was violently pushed to the floor. Protesters at the scene attended to the man and he walked away dazed. He collapsed moments later and died of a heart attack despite a swift response from police paramedics.

Various reports emerged from the police that evening. In the Gold control room there were suggestions the man had been a vagrant or homeless, and that he had been drinking. It was also widely circulated that Mr Tomlinson had taken part in the protests.

His death was breaking news at around 10 pm on Wednesday night on both Sky News and the BBC. Both channels quoted the Metropolitan Police saying that a man had died after “collapsing in the street”. Police later said they had at no point made contact with the man. Though some of the officers may not have known the man pushed to the ground was to be the man who died.

Pictures published later however brought forward many witnesses after they recognised the man in the picture and have reported the earlier incident to the IPCC [Independent Police Complaints Commission].

Yesterday the Guardian ran a story in which they suggested that Ian Tomlinson had been assaulted. Photographer Anna Branthwaite told the paper, "I can remember seeing Ian Tomlinson. He was rushed from behind by a riot officer with a helmet and shield two or three minutes before he collapsed." Branthwaite, an experienced press photographer, has made a statement to the IPCC as have several others. A female protester, who did not want to be named but has given her testimony to the IPCC, said she saw a man she later recognised as Tomlinson being pushed aggressively from behind by officers. "I saw a man violently propelled forward, as though he'd been flung by the arm, and fall forward on his head. He hit the top front area of his head on the pavement. I noticed his fall particularly because it struck me as a horrifically forceful push by a policeman and an especially hard fall; it made me wince."

On BBC Radio 4’ PM programme Tomlinson’s son Paul King called for witnesses to come forward so the family could learn the truth behind his fathers death. He said the family was “devastated” by Ian’s death and described him as a “lovely father”. The Guardian article and radio report has now brought further eyewitness reports and video evidence which not only refute police claims but may bring possible charges if the IPCC find that the apparent assault on Mr Tomlinson resulted in his subsequent heart attack [Sky News / BBC / Guardian]

Children face attempted murder charges

1. Nine-year-old boy found injured on Auburn Road
2. Critically injured 11-year-old found
3. Two boys, aged 10 and 11, arrested

Two boys will be charged of attempted murder and robbery following the assault of two others in Edlington, in south Yorkshire, England, on Saturday. One boy remains in hospital following a horrific attack which left him with serious head injuries. He was found stripped to just a T-shirt after his friend staggered away from the scene, covered in blood, and sought help.

Police were earlier given extra time to interview the 10 year old and 11 year old brothers arrested soon after the attack [BBC]. Their victims a nine year old and an eleven year old were apparently robbed of their mobile phones and trainers in what has been described as a vicious attack. People who found the nine year old child wandering along a road described his injuries as horrific saying he’d been “cut from head to toe”. Local residents told the BBC they believed the two victims had been hit with a brick, slashed with a knife and burned with cigarettes in the Brick Ponds area of Edlington on Saturday.

Lisa Meehan said "I felt sick to my stomach, You couldn't see his face, he was cut from head to toe with a gash across his head. They had slashed his arms and face and he had no trainers or socks on. His face was mashed."

The severity of the attack prompted the Prime Minister to make a statement in which he said it was “clearly a shocking incident” [Sky News].