Policewoman: I was shocked at force used at G20. Ian Tomlinson was no threat

A policewoman today told how she was "shocked" by the way Ian Tomlinson was knocked to the ground by one of her colleagues.

The inquest into the newspaper seller's death heard that he sat dazed on the pavement pleading "I just want to go home".

He had shown no aggression, posed no threat to the police and was clearly not part of the G20 protest, the court was told.

Yet he was pushed so forcefully and unneccesarily Pc Kerry Smith said she was shocked.

Under questioning from Matthew Ryder QC, for the Tomlinson family, she said: "I didn't see him shouting or chanting, he didn't appear to be with anybody else, so I didn't think he was a demonstrator."

The inquest heard she said in a statement after the incident that Mr Tomlinson seemed "a bit slow on the uptake" and was "pushing his luck a bit by asking to get through".

She also wrote: "I was shocked by the forcefulness of the push on Mr Tomlinson."

She told the inquest: "I was shocked, yes. However I do not know what the officer had seen or heard prior to pushing Mr Tomlinson."

Mr Ryder asked: "You didn't think it was necessary to use any force on Mr Tomlinson, as far as you were concerned?"

She replied: "From the dealings I had, no I didn't."

Samantha Leek, for the Metropolitan Police Service, also asked if she believed Mr Tomlinson posed a threat to officers.

Pc Smith replied: "I didn't feel so at the time."

The officer also said she had not heard Mr Tomlinson being given any verbal warning before he was shoved.

On the second anniversary of Mr Tomlinson's death, she told the inquest at the International Dispute Resolution Centre in Fleet Street, London: "He sat up and looked towards us and he said 'I just wanted to go home'.

"I said 'It's obvious mate, you can't come through'."

Pc Smith, based in Fulham, with more than seven years' service in the Met, wrote in notes after the incident: "Officer left of me pushed him. He went forward. Thought he hit head. Expected blood.

"He sat up, looked around, said 'I just want to go home'. Dazed, shocked.

"I said 'Mate, it's obvious, you can't go that way'."

In a statement read to the inquest, Robert Fitch, whose office overlooked the scene, said Mr Tomlinson did not react to the police line despite being close enough for the dogs to bite him and being struck with a baton more than once.

Mr Fitch's colleague, Guiseppe Di-Cecio, a hedge fund manager in the same office, said "There was no aggressiveness from Mr Tomlinson towards the police officer and there was no tense situation in that immediate vicinity."

The inquest continues.