Alcoholic was being obstructive, Pc on death charge says

Pc Simon Harwood, 45, told Southwark Crown Court Mr Tomlinson looked as if he “wanted” officers to move him away.

Harwood hit Mr Tomlinson with his baton and shoved him to the ground near the Royal Exchange Buildings in the City of London during the protests in April 2009.

Mr Tomlinson, who was an alcoholic and slept rough for a number of years, got up and walked around 75 yards before he collapsed and later died.

Harwood denies manslaughter on the grounds he used reasonable force.

Giving evidence at his trial yesterday, he said he thought Mr Tomlinson was deliberately obstructing the police.

“I believed he was doing it on purpose. From what I saw he looked like he wasn’t going to move and was looking at the police as though he wanted them to move him away.”

He said he pushed the father-of-nine, who was walking away from a police line at the time, “firmly” after the baton strike but did not mean to push him over.

Harwood, who got up at 2.30am that day, told the court that before coming across Mr Tomlinson he thought protesters were “goading” him after he had tried and failed to arrest a man for scrawling graffiti on a police carrier.

Opening the defence case Patrick Gibbs QC told jurors they were the only members of the public who would ever know the full facts of what happened that day.

Mr Gibbs said Harwood, who had been a specialist in public order since 2004, was frightened by what was happening.

He said the baton strike was a “bad decision”, but this was not what caused Mr Tomlinson’s death from internal bleeding, which caused a heart attack.

Inspector Timothy Williams earlier told the court that Harwood was “shocked” when he saw footage of him pushing Mr Tomlinson on television.

In his own notes about that day, Harwood said that before he came across Mr Tomlinson, other protesters were rioting and throwing missiles at him.

He unsuccessfully tried to arrest a man for writing ACAB – short for “all cops are bastards” – on a police carrier, and found around 100 demonstrators chasing him.

Harwood, who had no riot shield, said he was in fear for his safety and began hitting protesters with his baton because they were trying to punch and kick him.

The case continues.