2009-08-08

Police memos reveal IPCC haste to declare Ian Tomlinson death an accident

"It was during this charge and retreat that Mr Tomlinson has seemed to have been caught up in the crowds and a number of people describe seeing him 'collapse and fall to the ground'."

The statement went on to say the IPCC had examined CCTV of the incident, police records and statements from independent witnesses, and been "satisfied that there is no evidence that the actions of those officers present on Cornhill contributed in any way to the sudden and untimely death of an innocent bystander".

Their premature conclusions were read over the phone to Tomlinson's family, but then appear to have been shelved at the last minute.

The commission announced this week that it has completed its four-month criminal inquiry into Tomlinson's death, and handed a file to prosecutors.

The Crown Prosecution Service will now decide whether to charge the Metropolitan police officer who struck Tomlinson moments before he died with manslaughter. Another IPCC investigation into complaints that City of London police and the Met deliberately misled the public over the death is continuing.

The initial IPCC document was included in City of London police logs written by the Tomlinson family's police liaison officer in the days after his death. The officer's memos, seen by the Guardian, reveal that when the victim's widow, Julia Tomlinson, was told the IPCC was about to end its inquiry she "burst into tears".

An IPCC spokeswoman said tonight the document it planned to release on 4 April had been a draft which "needed to be checked further".

She said the decision to end the investigation was not made, adding: "There is an ongoing investigation into the level of knowledge within the police as well as media handling in the aftermath of Mr Tomlinson's death."

The logs also reveal the family were told by police there were "no marks" on Tomlinson's face, a claim they contested after viewing his body. In their first interview, on Thursday, the family said City of London police, the Met and the IPCC discouraged them from talking to the media and said they believed there were attempts to cover up details about the death.

They said they were only given a selective account of a postmortem which found Tomlinson died of a heart attack.

The logs appear to confirm they were not told that the pathologist also discovered large amounts of blood in Tomlinson's stomach and other injuries.

"Looking back, it is obvious we were misled by police in the hours and days after Ian died," Paul King, Tomlinson's son, said.

"There is still a lot to come out about how we were prevented from knowing the truth about Ian's death." He added that the family had been in shock when police family liaison officers were appointed and, he said, "trusted them too much".

Tomlinson, a 47-year-old newspaper vendor, collapsed and died moments after being struck near the Bank of England around 7.20pm. He had been attempting to walk home from work when he was turned away from police cordons used by the Met to contain protesters in a "kettle".

The tactic was criticised by the IPCC this week, when it released its report into the case of a 23-year-old woman with bruises and heavy vaginal bleeding who was prevented from leaving a "kettle" for up to five hours. A doctor subsequently said there was a small chance the woman could have had a miscarriage.

"While this young woman's alleged injuries were more serious than most, her experience appears to have been typical of many peaceful protesters on 1 April," said the IPCC commissioner for London, Deborah Glass.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/07/ian-tomlinson-death-ipcc-g20