"The Guardian has published new evidence claiming police misled journalists over the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests.
"The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is expected to publish a report today looking into whether police and press officers misled the media following Tomlinson’s death on 1 April, 2009.........
Today’s IPCC report will look at all police press office contact, including all prepared press lines, made by the Met Police and City of London Police between 1 April 2009 – the date Tomlinson died – and 7 April 2009, the date The Guardian published the first video footage of Tomlinson being shoved to the ground by PC Simon Harwood."
REPORTER ANDREW PUGH; THE GUARDIAN;
REMINDER: EXECUTION BY FIRE Friday, May 13, 10PM (9PM Manitoba/Sask.)
(In 1991 three little girls died in a fire that gutted their home in a small Texas town. Sympathy turned to rage when their father was charged with murder by arson. After a thirteen-year battle to prove his innocence and despite new evidence casting doubt over the conviction, Todd Willingham was executed by lethal injection in 2004. Since Willingham’s death, leading fire scientists have challenged the underpinnings of the case, concluding it was an accidental fire. Today, Willingham’s family is still battling to clear his name and for the first time Texas may be forced to admit to executing an innocent man. Another documentary by renowned Canadian journalist Julian Sher. “What can be more crushing than the nightmare of losing your child,” asks Sher. “And then the nightmare gets unimaginably worse when the police accuse you of the murder and you know you’re innocent? These were compelling human dramas and trials that grabbed the headlines. We tried to look at the toll these cases took not only on the accused but also on their families—their loved ones, the other children. It’s also about how communities turn against the guilty suspect in our midst – how we are all guilty of jumping to conclusions.”)
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A thorough account of "The death of Ian Tomlinson" can be found on Wikipedia at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ian_Tomlinson
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: If Dr. Freddy Patel had the last word, a 47-year-old newspaper vendor named Ian Tomlinson's death after he collapsed on the pavement on the fringes of protests at the G20 on April 1, 2009 would have been written off as "natural causes." However amateur video footage emerged showing him being pushed to the ground by a police officer who faces misconduct proceedings after an inquest beginning in March 2011 is completed. As noted on Wikipedia: "Ian Tomlinson (7 February 1962 – 1 April 2009) was an English newspaper vendor who collapsed and died in the City of London on his way home from work during the 2009 G-20 summit protests. A first postmortem examination indicated that he had suffered a heart attack brought on by coronary artery disease, and had died of natural causes. His death became controversial a week later when The Guardian obtained footage of his last moments, filmed by an American investment fund manager who was visiting London. The video showed Tomlinson being struck on the leg from behind by a police officer wielding an extendable baton, then pushed to the ground by the same officer. It appeared to show no provocation on Tomlinson's part—he was not a protester, and at the time he was struck, the footage showed him walking along with his hands in his pockets. He walked away after the incident, but collapsed and died moments later. After The Guardian published the video, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) began a criminal inquiry. A second postmortem indicated that Tomlinson had died from internal bleeding caused by a blunt force trauma to the abdomen, in association with cirrhosis of the liver. A third postmortem was arranged by the defence team of the accused officer, PC Simon Harwood; the third pathologist agreed that the cause of death was internal bleeding. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced in July 2010 that no charges would be brought, because medical disagreement about the cause of the death meant prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there was a causal link between the death and the alleged assault. The first pathologist, Dr Freddy Patel, was suspended for three months in August 2010 for "deficient professional performance" in several unrelated cases." As the Guardian reported on March 19, 2011, Patel, who had been previously suspended for incompetence in a series of high profile autopsies, was found guilty of professional misconduct after failing to spot that a murder victim had been suffocated. He now faces being struck off the medical register.
A disciplinary panel of the General Medical Council ruled that his "fitness to practise was impaired" because of his reluctance to consider asphyxiation in the murder case, the falsification of his professional CV, and his failure to redress previous professional shortcomings. The UK Press Association says that the inquest, "is likely to examine the actions of police, the pathologist, the coroner and independent investigators in the aftermath of Mr Tomlinson's death." The Goudge Inquiry into many of former Dr. Charles Smith's cases also examined relationships between pathologists and police - particularly a case in which Smith agreed to interview a woman, suspected of murdering her baby, at her home while fully aware that the home had been secretly bugged by the authorities.
HAROLD LEVY; PUBLISHER; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG;
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"The Guardian has published new evidence claiming police misled journalists over the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests," the Guardian story by reporter Andrew Pugh published earlier today under the heading, "New claims over Tomlinson death media 'cover-up'," begins.
"The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is expected to publish a report today looking into whether police and press officers misled the media following Tomlinson’s death on 1 April, 2009," the story continues.
"Today’s Guardian report alleges three Met police officers came forward to say they had witnessed another officer pushing Tomlinson to the ground, but that this information was not passed to either the coroner, the pathologist, the media or Tomlinson’s family.
Nor was the information handed to the IPCC, reports Guardian journalist Paul Lewis.
The Guardian reports that this has forced the police watchdog to open a new investigation into what exactly happened with the information, following a meeting last week in which The Guardian gave the IPCC a breakdown of its evidence.
Within hours of Tomlinson’s death the City of London police press office was influencing coverage via off-the-record briefings, The Guardian reports, adding: “A reporter was told Tomlinson's family were ‘not surprised’ about his death and that speculation was upsetting them.
“Tomlinson’s family say the content of these briefings was ‘completely untrue’. Press coverage that day was largely favourable to the police. The Evening Standard, the newspaper Tomlinson had been selling for two decades, ran the headline: 'Police pelted with bricks as they help dying man'.”
The story goes on to claim that the IPCC was on the verge of exonerating the police over any wrongdoing and drafted a police statement saying: “Based on the information at this stage the IPCC are satisfied that there is no evidence that the actions of those officers present in Cornhill contributed in any way to the sudden and untimely death of an innocent bystander.”
The statement was dropped after new witnesses came forward.
Today’s IPCC report will look at all police press office contact, including all prepared press lines, made by the Met Police and City of London Police between 1 April 2009 – the date Tomlinson died – and 7 April 2009, the date The Guardian published the first video footage of Tomlinson being shoved to the ground by PC Simon Harwood."
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The story can be found at:
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=47071&c=1
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;