PC Simon Harwood today pleaded guilty to a charge of gross misconduct before a police panel. As a result, a full hearing was not held. The Panel also decided that they would not consider whether the actions of PC Harwood led directly to the death of Ian Tomlinson.
In response, Paul King, Ian Tomlinson’s son said:
“We came here expecting a disciplinary hearing. There has been no hearing. We expected the Met to rule on whether its officer killed Ian. The Met has basically gone ‘no comment’.
“It’s a whitewash. 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.”
Deborah Coles, co-director of INQUEST said:
“The anguish this family have been put through for over three years, culminating in this woefully inadequate hearing, only demonstrates yet again the lack of proper and robust mechanisms for holding the police to account both at an individual and institutional level.”
Ends
No Full Misconduct Hearing As Pc Simon Harwood Pleads Guilty To Charge Of Police Misconduct
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PC Simon Harwood today pleaded guilty to a charge of gross misconduct before a police panel. As a result, a full hearing was not held. The Panel also decided that they would not consider whether the actions of PC Harwood led directly to the death of Ian Tomlinson.
In response, Paul King, Ian Tomlinson’s son said:
“We came here expecting a disciplinary hearing. There has been no hearing. We expected the Met to rule on whether its officer killed Ian. The Met has basically gone ‘no comment’.
“It’s a whitewash. 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.”
Deborah Coles, co-director of INQUEST said:
“The anguish this family have been put through for over three years, culminating in this woefully inadequate hearing, only demonstrates yet again the lack of proper and robust mechanisms for holding the police to account both at an individual and institutional level.”
Ends
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