"Tomlinson's family responded by the report by releasing extracts from a letter the IPCC sent to a top-ranking Met officer in March this year. In the letter, the IPCC said there was a "total lack of evidence" for the fall reported by Hall.
"There is no evidence of any kind to suggest that Ian Tomlinson fell in front of a van," the letter said. "No media footage portrays a fall; it was not said in any Gold Group [a forum designed to 'add value to the response to an internal or external critical incident'] meeting; no investigator workbook documents that there was a fall, there is no email traffic revealing such a view and there is no witness evidence that he fell in front of a van."
REPORTER PAUL LEWIS: 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.”)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A thorough account of "The death of Ian Tomlinson" can be found on Wikipedia at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ian_Tomlinson
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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;
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"A senior Metropolitan police officer was "reckless" in his conduct by misleading two pathologists over the possible cause of Ian Tomlinson's death, the police watchdog has ruled," the Guardian story by reporter Paul Lewis published earlier today under the heading, "Ian Tomlinson death: IPCC rules Met officer 'reckless' in conduct: Detective Inspector Eddie Hall falsely claimed Tomlinson fell down before encountering PC Simon Harwood," begins.
"Detective Inspector Eddie Hall, the most senior Met officer involved in the Tomlinson inquiry, was investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission after it emerged he told two forensic experts Tomlinson had fallen to the ground in front of a police van before the newspaper seller came into contact with PC Simon Harwood," the story continues.
"In his defence, Hall said an IPCC investigator had told him Tomlinson had fallen in front of a van. The IPCC investigator, Chris Mahaffey, denied this.
Hall's claim was formally relayed to two pathologists charged with finding a cause of 47-year-old Tomlinson's death at the G20 protests in London.
Video footage showed Tomlinson being struck with a baton and violently pushed from behind on 1 April 2009 on Royal Exchange Buildings.
An inquest jury found last week that Tomlinson was "unlawfully killed" by the police officer, and died from internal bleeding as a result of injuries sustained by the push.
Jurors heard evidence from four pathologists, including Dr Ken Shorrock, one of the pathologists formally instructed by Hall on behalf of the Met at St Pancras mortuary on 22 April 2009.
The police officer told Shorrock that Tomlinson had been seen to fall to the ground on Lombard Street, minutes before the newspaper seller came across Harwood. The same information was supplied to Dr Ben Swift, the pathologist instructed by Harwood, who was also present during the examination.
Tomlinson did walk on to Lombard Street as he tried to find a route home through the G20 protests and was forcefully escorted out of the road by police officers. But there was no evidence that even suggested he fell to the ground.
Releasing the findings of its inquiry, the IPCC confirmed that "misinformation was supplied by the police to the pathologists". It said there was never any evidence to suggest Tomlinson fell to the ground in front of a van on Lombard Street.
Investigators found that while Hall did not "intentionally mislead" the pathologist, his erroneous briefing jeopardised the investigation, inquest and possible prosecution. "He did so based on what he believed to be the case at the time but he should have ensured he relayed factual information rather than his interpretation of the facts," the report said.
The inquest jury was told to ignore part of Shorrock's report in which he said he could not rule out that the fall in Lombard Street had resulted in the fatal internal bleeding.
The Met said in a statement: "The report concerning information supplied to the pathologists by an MPS [Metropolitan police service] officer found that although incorrect information was given, this was an honestly held belief and there was no evidence of intent to mislead and no lasting damage to the investigation."
Tomlinson's family responded by the report by releasing extracts from a letter the IPCC sent to a top-ranking Met officer in March this year. In the letter, the IPCC said there was a "total lack of evidence" for the fall reported by Hall.
"There is no evidence of any kind to suggest that Ian Tomlinson fell in front of a van," the letter said. "No media footage portrays a fall; it was not said in any Gold Group [a forum designed to 'add value to the response to an internal or external critical incident'] meeting; no investigator workbook documents that there was a fall, there is no email traffic revealing such a view and there is no witness evidence that he fell in front of a van."
In a separate development, the Guardian revealed on Monday that senior police were told within 48 hours of Tomlinson's death that police witnesses had seen him being pushed to the ground by Harwood.
The three constables who witnessed the assault did not recognise Harwood, but the significance of their information was instantly realised and passed on to City of London police investigators.
The IPCC is now investigating why City of London failed to pass the information on to its own officials, the coroner, the pathologist, the family or the media."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The story can be found at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/09/ian-tomlinson-death
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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;
