Yesterday’s evidence was given by Support Workers at Dimensions, this morning we heard from another two Dimensions Support Workers, the first of whom was Sally’s keyworker. Just a note on sound, the court are aware of the difficulties for those following on MS Teams, which includes Sally’s brother who lives overseas. The coroner, and counsel, […]
Five and a half years after she died, the final inquest into the death of Sally Lewis got underway today at the Worcestershire Coroner’s Court in Stourport on Severn. David Reid, the Senior Coroner for Worcestershire, was sitting and there were six interested person’s legally represented in court. I was attending remotely via MS Teams. […]
On January 22 2018 I sat in Ipswich Coroners Court waiting for the start of Richard Handley’s inquest. What we heard in court over the weeks that followed was a horrific blow by blow account of how the care and support provided to Richard failed him. There were seven interested parties including his care provider, […]
The jury returned to court shortly before quarter to four today, 27 April, having been retired to consider their verdicts since 11:30 yesterday. I’ve listed the charges below with the verdicts underneath them. Five of the defendants were found not guilty of any of the charges alleged against them, Sarah Banner, Karen McGhee, Niall Mellor, […]
I had intended to report HHJ Smith’s Summing Up, which he gave yesterday. It started in the hour before the court adjourned for lunch, and continued after a break. When it continued I really struggled to hear, I don’t know what had happened and on occasion the sound has been a little patchy throughout this […]
The final closing speech was given late morning yesterday, 25 April, by Mr Paul Rooney for Sabah Mahmood. Mr Rooney started by telling the jury he had drawn the short straw, that they’d already had to listen to nine speeches and now they had to listen to his, but he said he would only be […]
The penultimate closing speech was given by Mr Shaun Dryden on behalf of John Sanderson. He opened by explaining that he was addressing them eighth of all because his client was the eighth defendant, and he’d try not to cover ground his learned friends had already covered and he apologised in advance if he did […]
The first closing speech heard today, Tuesday 25 April, was from Ms Rebecca Brown for Darren Lawton. She checked that everyone could hear and started by saying that she really liked her job. I really like my job and I know that that makes me very lucky. One of the things I like most about […]
The final closing speech yesterday, Monday 24 April, was Mr Robin Patton for the sixth defendant Niall Mellor. Mr Patton opened by saying he’d try to avoid repetition and he’d been editing lots of things out of his speech so that the jury don’t hear it for the fourth or fifth time. He told the […]
The half way point in the defendant’s closing speeches was occupied by Mr Christopher Knox for Ryan Fuller. [Mr Knox who addressed the jury after lunch on Monday 24 April, had a tendency towards the middle and end of his speech to move around somewhat, and raise his arms, which meant unfortunately I really struggled […]