Misconduct hearing for cleared G20 policeman

Pc Simon Harwood was acquitted of manslaughter last month, but police watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) ordered that he should face the internal Metropolitan Police hearing in public.

Yesterday, Scotland Yard confirmed that a gross misconduct hearing in front of a panel of three people including a senior officer and a lay person will take place on September 17. It is expected to last up to four weeks.

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

The 47-year-old, who was an alcoholic and had slept rough for a number of years, managed to walk 75 yards before he collapsed and later died from internal bleeding.

Harwood told jurors at Southwark Crown Court that he had used only reasonable force, and was cleared of killing the father-of-nine.

Jurors in an inquest into the death had earlier returned a verdict of unlawful killing.

The officer, 45, from Carshalton in Surrey, had a controversial disciplinary record before the G20 incident. A series of allegations were made against him over a 12-year period, and he was allowed to retire from the Met on medical grounds in 2001. Later, Harwood rejoined the force as a civilian worker, before becoming a police officer for Surrey. He was then allowed to rejoin the Met in 2004.