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plod cover up covered up

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/05/ian-tomlinson-police-watchdog

"The family of Ian Tomlinson, the man who died at the G20 protest
after being attacked by the police, has been told it would be
"inappropriate" for an official watchdog to consider whether officers
were involved in a cover-up.

Five members of Tomlinson's family, including his wife, Julia,
attended a public meeting at London's City Hall today to complain that
events surrounding his death were being ignored by officials.

They told the civil liberties panel of the Metropolitan Police
Authority (MPA), which is conducting an inquiry into the protests,
that police tried to "cover up" police involvement in his death, an
aspect of the controversy which they feel has been ignored.

Tomlinson, 47, collapsed and died near the Bank of England on 1 April,
minutes after a member of the Met's territorial support group struck
him with a baton and pushed him to the ground. The newspaper vendor,
who was walking home from work when he was attacked from behind, also
received suspected dog bites to his legs.

"We hope your report will look into whether police tried to cover up
our father's death," Tomlinson's son, Richard King, told the panel.
"We feel we were led down the garden path. We do feel it was a
cover-up from the beginning. He [was struck] in front of 18 officers.
Not one of the officers came forward to say they witnessed what
happened. Not one of the officers went to give him first aid. Not one
of the officers went to help him off the floor."

His brother, Paul King, added: "There have been four inquiries into
the demonstrations and the policing of G20 and we want to know why the
dog that bit Ian, the baton strike and the push to the floor have not
been mentioned. He was an innocent man on his way home. We have lost
our dad."

However, Victoria Borwick, the Conservative chair of the panel, told
the family that she believed it would be "inappropriate" for the MPA –
the body responsible for holding the force to account – to take up
their concerns. "There is nothing any of us can say to reverse the
situation of what happened last April," she added. "We are extremely
sorry."

After the meeting, Borwick said she meant to say her committee would
take legal advice on whether it could investigate the alleged
cover-up.

Within 24 hours of Tomlinson's death, police became aware that their
officers may have been involved in a physical altercation with him.
However, in public, police refused to confirm there had been contact
and resisted calls for an independent investigation until five days
later, when the Guardian revealed video footage of the incident.

The officer who struck Tomlinson was suspended from duty on full pay.
The Crown Prosecution Service has indicated it will decide whether to
charge him with Tomlinson's manslaughter in the next two months. An
inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) into
complaints the Met and City of London deliberately misled the public
about Tomlinson's death has yet to conclude.

Among several reports into the policing of the G20 demonstrations has
been a report from the Met, two parliamentary inquiries and an
official review by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, the
national watchdog. All have made just glancing references to
Tomlinson's death, claiming they cannot prejudice the investigation
into his death.

However Tomlinson's family point out that concerns which are separate
from the criminal investigation into what caused his death – such as
their belief they were "deliberately misled" by police – have not been
addressed.

When an initial postmortem found Tomlinson died of a heart attack, the
family were not told that the pathologist also found large amounts of
blood in his stomach, bruising on his body and bites on his leg.
Instead, they were told by police at an early stage that witnesses had
seen him "run out of batteries". A second postmortem found he died of
internal bleeding."

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