Ian Tomlinson Death. An Apology.

Ian Tomlinson was the man who died following an assault by the police at the G20 demonstrations in London. Following an initial post-mortem the death was officially put down to natural causes by way of heart attack and rumours abounded that Mr Tomlinson died of head injuries sustained as a result of a police baton strike. At the time I dismissed these rumours on the grounds that not even the dimmest Home Office pathologist could get away with missing evidence of head injuries at autopsy. It has now emerged that this is not the case.

In 2002 a suspicious death investigation was opened after the body of Ms Sally White was discovered in a flat in London. Although the victims body showed extensive evidence of violence including bruising, a head injury and a bite mark on the inner thigh the pathologist, Dr Freddy Patel, ruled the death as natural causes by way of a a heart attack and the criminal investigation was closed. The man who lived in the flat went on to murder two other women before chopping up their bodies and dumping the body parts in bin bags. Dr Freddy Patel was not disciplined for this failure and went on to perform Mr Tomlinson's autopsy.

Although Dr Patel is a fully accredited pathologist he is not a member of the Forensic Pathology Service, a group of specialist pathologists who normally investigate suspicious deaths in the Greater London area. Dr Patel does however have quite a lot of experience in dealing with deaths in police custody. In 1999 he carried out the autopsy on Roger Sylvester who died in St Anne's Hospital, Haringey after being violently restrained by eight police officers. Mr Sylvester's death was again put down to natural causes by way of heart attack and the police were cleared of any responsibility for his death. Following the coroners inquest Dr Patel was formally reprimanded by the General Medical Council (GMC) for giving false and misleading information about the case to the press.

While I still think the UK Security Services have irrefutable evidence that Mr Tomlinson did not die of head injuries sustained by a police baton strike I have to concede that yes, even the dimmest Home Office pathologist can get away with missing crucial evidence at an autopsy. This is especially true if the pathologist in question is Dr Freddy Patel.

In related news a Metropolitan Police officer is in a critical condition in hospital following an incident in which he received serious head injuries. In this case three people have already been arrested to allow the police to carry out a thorough investigation of the incident.