Monday, September 17, 2012

Simon Harwood: (Freddy Patel case); Police panel finds him guilty of professional misconduct. Tomlinson family says it's a "whitewash." No ruling as to whether his actions contrinuted to Ian Tomlinson's death: Guardian;


STORY: Ian Tomlinson case: PC Simon Harwood sacked for gross misconduct," by reporter Peter Harwood, published in the Guardian on September 17, 2012.

GIST: "The Metropolitan policeman who struck and pushed Ian Tomlinson as he walked away from riot officers on the fringe of the G20 protests in London has been sacked with immediate effect after a disciplinary hearing found he had committed gross misconduct. It was "inconceivable" that PC Simon Harwood, who was cleared of Tomlinson's manslaughter in July following one of the most high-profile cases of police misconduct in recent years, could ever work as a police officer again, the three-strong panel ruled.........The disciplinary panel, sitting in public for the first time in the Met's history, was initially going to try to reconcile these contradictory verdicts by ruling on whether Harwood's actions contributed to Tomlinson's death, even inadvertently, But this element was removed after representations from the officer's lawyers, dismaying Tomlinson's widow and children. Tomlinson's stepson, Paul King, described the process as "a whitewash" after walking out of the Met police administrative centre in Earl's Court, west London, before the final ruling had been given. He said: "It's like they have just let PC Harwood resign. The conflicting verdicts of the inquest and criminal court still need to be resolved. We haven't given up, we will now be looking to the civil courts for the final judgment on who killed our dad." King added: "Who killed Ian? We know. It's just a question of getting them to own up."

 The entire story can be found at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/sep/17/simon-harwood-sacked-gross-misconduct?newsfeed=true

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

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

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.