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Ian Tomlinson cop: no charges
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Merrick
Merrick
2148 posts

Re: You can donate money to the 'fighting fund'
Jul 27, 2010, 11:13
Rhiannon wrote:
It's too late to get just a charge of assault now?


Yes. That has a time limit of six months.

Rhiannon wrote:
is manslaughter now 'disproved'?


No. However, the CPS say that becuase one autopsy says the assault did not contribute to the death, there is a conflict of expert evidence and this means there will be reasonable doubt and thus lead to acquittal.

Of course, some might say that deciding between conflicting versions of events is exactly waht a court is there for.

The shonkiness of the first autopsy is counterbalanced by the fact that it was the first one, and so was the only examination of Tomlinson's intact body.

The charges that also remain open are Actual Bodily Harm and Misconduct in Public Ofice. To get a conviction they need to show that Tomlinson suffered actual harm from the assault, rather than merely being pushed over. The evidence is that he had patterend bruising from the baton strike, so that should be a straightforward convition and it's unclear why the CPS didn't go with these charges.

I think it's important to remember that the Tomlinson assualt was unlucky. The police committed thousands of similar assualts that day (the casual nature of it, and the fact that it was on an unthreatening person, shows that the officer was used to it). This wasn't one moment of excessive force, but part of a long-used tactic in public order situations and at protests the police deem unacceptable.
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You can donate money to the 'fighting fund' (Rhiannon)
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