For anyone who's been following the latest developments with the Ian Tomlinson case, the following article over at the Press Gazette is well worth a read.In it, Guardian reporter Paul Lewis explains how he got his first break in the case which made his name. (In fact, the article itself was first written in August 2009, but it was never run online and the Press Gazette have only now cannily uploaded it.)
I was on the bus when my editor called. A man had died the previous evening during the G20 demonstrations, which I had been reporting.
All we knew about Ian Tomlinson at that time was he was a man wearing a Millwall shirt. I called the Millwall Football Supporters Association - no answer. I got my pad out on the bus and started calling all the mobile numbers of people I took quotes from the previous day, to see if they had seen anything.
One of them had, and I waited an hour at an estate in Shepherd’s Bush for some teenagers to bring me photos of Tomlinson, and another hour convincing them not to sell the pictures to the tabloids.He goes on to recount word for word the email he sent his editor after going through the pictures back in the office: 'I know there are thoughts I’m a conspiracy theorist, but the more I discover about dead man, the more suspicious I get. Things don’t add up and the police are cagey. Post-mortem postponed. Again.'
http://fleetstreetblues.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-i-discover-about-dead-man-more.html
