PC in the G20 death case awaits verdict

A JURY yesterday retired to consider its verdict in the case of the police officer accused of the manslaughter of Ian Tomlinson.

PC Simon Harwood hit Mr Tomlinson with a baton and pushed him to the ground during the G20 protests in the City of London in April 2009.

The father of nine walked 75 yards before he collapsed and later died.

Harwood accepted he was “wrong” to have hit and pushed Mr Tomlinson.

He said if he had realised Mr Tomlinson was walking away from police lines he “would not have gone near him”.

He said: “Now I’ve seen all the evidence and I know how poorly Mr Tomlinson was I’m sorry that I got involved, I shouldn’t have hit him with a baton and pushed him.”

Harwood, 45, from Carshalton in Surrey, denies manslaughter on the grounds that he used reasonable force.