PC Simon Harwood, who pushed Ian Tomlinson, says he posed no threat but was obstructing the police line
A policeman has told an inquest Ian Tomlinson posed no threat when he struck him with a baton and pushed him to the ground at the G20 protests, but said his actions were a proportionate attempt to "encourage" the newspaper seller to move.
PC Simon Harwood also offered a partial apology, saying he was sorry "if it is the case" that he had been somehow responsible for Tomlinson's death moments later.
The police officer told a jury he had been "amazed" to see the 47-year-old tumble to the ground as he had only given him "a very poor push" with an open palm.
During his second day of evidence, the officer told the inquest into Tomlinson's death at the International Dispute Resolution Centre, in London, that he had decided to use force against the newspaper seller as he thought he was refusing to move away from a line of police.
Seconds before the push, he said he saw a dog bite Tomlinson's leg and another officer push him in the back. "I felt at the time he was obstructing the police line moving forward," he said.
However, asked whether he had assessed Tomlinson as posing a threat to either himself or anyone else, Harwood replied: "No, I don't believe he did."
Harwood then described stepping out from behind other officers to strike Tomlinson during the protests in central London in 2009.
"I thought it was proportional to do so, because he was still not moving away from the police line," he said.
"I then struck Mr Tomlinson around the upper half of his left leg – to his thigh – with my baton."
After there was "no reaction" from the father of nine, Harwood said he reassessed the situation, and decided to push him.
He said he then pushed Tomlinson across the shoulder and was "amazed as he fell forwards". He added: "The push that I had used wasn't that much force in my mind to have caused that to happen."
Pressed on how much force he had used, Harwood said: "It was reasonable, but it was quite a poor push, from my recollection, it was a very poor push … Contact was made, but it glanced rather than pushed through. It wasn't pushed through."
He told the jury that while notes written in his notebook just 40 minutes later made reference to other incidents, he made no mention of his confrontation with Tomlinson.
During fierce questioning, Matthew Ryder QC, counsel for Tomlinson's family, accused Harwood of deliberately misleading the jury.
On several occasions Harwood refused to identify himself in snippets of video footage, saying only that he was "possibly" the officer shown.
"I am going to suggest to you when it is right there in front of you that you are willing to be evasive and lie," Ryder said at one stage, adding later: "If, at any point, you want to tell us you haven't been telling the truth, PC Harwood, just say."
The barrister opened by saying that in previous evidence Harwood had said he wanted to "help" Tomlinson's family in seeking answers.
"If you want to help, would you like simply to admit that what you did to Mr Tomlinson was unreasonable, unnecessary and excessive?" Ryder asked.
"No," Harwood replied.
The officer was accused of "trying to tell half truths, exaggerations and deliberately painting a false picture" to serve his own interest.
As the exchange became increasingly terse, Harwood replied: "Are you asking a question or making a statement?"
Harwood, who is currently suspended from his job in the Metropolitan police's territorial support group (TSG), gave a partial apology for his actions during his evidence.
"From what I have seen from the video evidence, which was from a different angle, and the evidence shown to people here, if it is the case I had been in any way the cause of Mr Tomlinson's death then I am very sorry," he said.
But much of his testimony so far has focused on the eight minutes leading up to his encounter with Tomlinson, at 7.19pm on Royal Exchange Buildings.
During the lead-up to his encounter with Tomlinson, it emerged he became embroiled in several other confrontations, which he said left him isolated from his colleagues and "frightened and confused".
A TSG van driver, he had not been expected to leave his position next to his parked carrier. However, he did so after trying to arrest a man he spotted defacing a colleague's vehicle, just minutes before the incident involving Tomlinson.
The suspect escaped, but Harwood said the crowd turned on him and left him fearing for his life. He also said he felt it was too dangerous for him to return to his van, adding that he fell to the ground, lost his baton and received a blow to the head.
Video footage and photographs shown to the jury, however, appeared to cast doubt on many aspects of Harwood's account of the incident.
Asked whether he stood by his initial account of what had happened, Harwood appeared to struggle. The judge, Peter Thornton QC, who is an acting deputy coroner, interrupted to clarify matters.
"At the time I wrote this, I thought I fell to the floor," said Harwood.
"Do you now accept that this is not correct?" the judge asked. "Yes," Harwood replied.
"That you lost your baton – that is not correct?" the judge asked. "Yes," Harwood replied.
"That you received a blow to the head – that is not correct?" the judge asked. "Yes," Harwood replied.
"And that there were violent and dangerous confrontations – that is not correct?" the judge asked. "Yes," Harwood replied.
The judge then asked how Harwood got all this wrong when he wrote the statement on 16 April. The officer replied: "Because at the time that is what I believed happened, from the information I had, that is what I believed happened to me."
Earlier, the inquest heard that after his attempted arrest of the protester defacing the van, Harwood swung a coat at another protester, pulled a BBC cameraman to the ground, used a palm strike against another man who had been trying to get past a police cordon and finally pushed another man he said had been threatening a dog handler. It was seconds after this that he said he spotted Tomlinson standing beside a bicycle stand, and, he said, decided he should "engage".
The inquest continues.