PC Harwood 'not guilty'

[sandyRoe]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18900484

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[sandyRoe]

Sqad, wasn't the first choice to do the PM a man of very low professional standing?
I thought at the time that the authorities were trying to muddy the water by choosing him.
Incidentally,there were two blows. The baton first and then the shove.

[Sqad]

stoke.......the normal liver is a very resilient organ and well protected by the bony structure of the rib cage. Ruptured livers are normally associated with severe trauma as one would encounter in a road traffic accident and that certainly wasn't the case here.

Post mortem findings would clearly show a ruptured liver and as far as i know this was not commented upon only blood in the peritoneal cavity.
This does pose the unanswered question as to what was the origin of the blood, as it clearly wasn't from a ruptured liver.

[Sqad]

sandy......yes ...the first PM was done by an Indian pathologist who was later brought up to face the GMC.

Baton +shove would have been extremely unlikely to have ruptured his liver.

[stokemaveric]

thanks for your answer squad..im out of my league on all this medical jargon i must admit...but surely he should not have been pushed down in such a manner...im sure if he would have been allowed to walk away he would not have collapsed...and that is surely the question..yes i know anyone can collapse and die at any moment..but obviously the jury decided that this push was not a contributary factor...whether that be a right descision or not...the police should not have acted in such an aggresive manner to a bloke who was not armed,was not aggresive,and was walking AWAY from the police line..in my opinion mr tomlinson and his family have been denied justice...

[Sqad]

stoke..;-)...I understand where you are coming from and i am not sure that I always understand that "medical jargon"......

[jackthehat]

The Prosecution in this case obviously failed to persuade the Jury that the unfortunate death of Mr Tomlinson could be laid at the door of PC Harwood.

Manslaughter is subject to the tests laid out here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manslaughter

[stokemaveric]

lol squad....

[LoftyLottie]

Agree with Stoke Maverick and excellent posting from icg.

[Gromit]

// wasn't the first choice to do the PM a man of very low professional standing?
I thought at the time that the authorities were trying to muddy the water by choosing him. //

I think the first post mortem was done before it was known Tomlinson had been assaulted by a police office. At the time he was found slumped on the pavement and the PM said heart attack. When the film of Harwood was made public another PM was called for and reach a different conclusion. Because of the discrepency a third PM was held and concluded the same as the second and not a heart attack.

[sir.prize]

So he did it, admitted it and was then found not guilty.

Sounds about right.

Pathetic as usual.

[sandyRoe]

Was the first PM not done before it was known that there was photographic evidence of the assault?
It was said he was found slumped on the pavement. And that version of events might have been accepted if evidence contradicting it hadn't surfaced.

[pdq1]

Its cases like this that give the police a bad name. The selection procedure to enter the polce force must be glaringly faulty especially with his previous convictions.

[Gromit]

SandyRoe,

It was not initially treated as an assault. It was assumed he had had an heart attack and that his injuries were the results of him falling down. The video taken by an American tourist appeared on YouTube a few days later. When attempts were made to identify the victim in the video it was quickly realised that he had died near to the assault. It was another week before Harwood confessed to his superior that he was the copper in the now widely seen video.

[Gromit]

Harwood assaulted a BBC cameraman on the same day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK7dZ5Cwpfc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[askyourgran]

This is the second time Harwood has been guilty of assaulting a member of the public, he resigned from the Police then rejoined as a civilian and then again as Policemen. The man should never have been taken on for second time. His actions were disgraceful.

[starone]

Point one, I would not like to be a policeman trying to quell a riot (not singlehandedly of course). Point two, riding horses into a crowd to me seems to be much worse than pushing forward with shields and batons. Don't forget the policeman who was beheaded in similar riots some years ago. I don't think anyone was called to account for that, or maybe I missed it. It happens on both sides.

[eyethenkyew]

At last, justice for a Police Officer simply doing his duty. My faith in the British judicial system is restored!

[Gromit]

Starbuckone
// Winston Silcott, Mark Braithwaite and Engin Raghip—were convicted in 1987 and sentenced to life imprisonment. The men became known as the "Tottenham Three" during a campaign to secure their release, and in 1991 the Court of Appeal overturned their convictions, after an Electrostatic Document Apparatus (ESDA) test suggested that at least one page of detectives' notes from an interview—during which Silcott appeared to incriminate himself, though he said the remarks were a fabrication—may not have been transcribed contemporaneously, contrary to the detectives' testimony at trial. //

They fitted up the wrong men letting the murder escape justice.

[Duncer]

"He should lose his job for the sake of the general public and as an example to those who bully."

LoftyLottie - I agree with those sentiments entirely. Although I suspect the right verdict was reached in relation to the charges, he MUST be made an example of if the public are to regain confidene in the police and raise our expectations that bullies will not be tolerated. You are not supposed to draw a baton unless you feel your own safety is in danger.

[sir.prize]

So PC Harwood ended up crying in court . . . . .

duh!