Tomlinson police officer faces manslaughter charge

The police officer filmed hitting Ian Tomlinson, the newspaper seller who died at the G20 protests, could now be tried for manslaughter. The riot officer was questioned after a second post-mortem revealed that Tomlinson had not died of a heart attack, as was previously thought, but of an abdominal haemorrhage.

Tomlinson died on the evening of April 1, after stopping by at the G20 protests in the City of London on his way home from work. A video, taken by an American fund manager, which showed riot officers attacking him without provocation, was later sent to the Guardian.

The initial post-mortem, which was carried out by Dr Freddy Patel, had established that Tomlinson, who struggled against alcoholism, died of coronary artery disease. But a second examination, carried out by Dr Nat Cary, a pathologist appointed by Tomlinson's family and the Independent Police Complaints Commission, has disputed these findings.

Paul King, Mr Tomlinson's son, said: "First we were told that there had been no contact with the police, then we were told that he died of a heart attack. Now we know that he was violently assaulted by a police officer and died from internal bleeding. As time goes on, we hope that the full truth about how Ian died will be made known." ·