Morning, it’s early, and dimpsy outside so I’ve scoured my house for a well lit corner and I’m talking to you from my kitchen. I have just hit publish on a blog post that I wrote yesterday, on what was the 9th anniversary of the death of Mark Shannon. Last week I got to speak […]
I’m going to start by letting you into a secret, I am rarely shocked these days. In some ways I hate how the last decade has made me but I’m deeply cynical and mostly unflappable. Steeped in bereaved families fights for answers and accountability, deeply aware of the many flaws of our justice system when […]
Hello, so this week Twitter sent me a tweet, to tell me I’d been here for 13 years and it got me thinking and I thought I’d do a little recap. So just over 13 years ago I’d been to something called the @TheDoLectures, I was gifted a place. Look them up, they’re fabulous, it […]
As I sit trying to write this, to introduce you to Danny Willgoss, the poignancy of it being World Suicide Prevention Day is not lost on me. Danny was 25 when he died, his family believe by suicide, on Fathers’ Day in June 2018. Danny was autistic and we know that autistic people, without a […]
I attended a press conference this morning for the release of a Safeguarding Adults Review commissioned by Norfolk Safeguarding Adults Board into the death of three “patients” at Jeesal Cawston Park “Hospital”. I’ve intentionally put patients and hospital in scare quotes, because it’s a term that really shouldn’t be used in my opinion. Personally I’d […]
Hello, its the end of a long week but I was having a conversation this week with Gillian on twitter and said that I felt that the Learning Disability Mortality Review process, LEDER, was confusing things when it came to the deaths of learning disabled people rather than helping necessarily. She was interested in my […]
Video1: Hello, I’ve just finished reporting on the inquest into the death of Peter Gary Seaby and I don’t have it in me to write a blog post so I thought I would record a quick video message to share some of what we’ve heard and some of what we’ve learnt in court. The jury […]
On Monday 23 August 2021 the jury in the inquest touching on the death of Peter Seaby retired. The Coroner had summed the evidence up for them and concluded that the only legally safe and just conclusions that they could reach would be a short form conclusion of natural causes, or a short factual narrative. […]
Peter was born in 1954 in London, the youngest of four children following Richard, Karen and Mick. His older brother, Mick described to me how his Mum was stressed out when she found out Peter had Downs Syndrome, but his Dad smothered him with love and always said he’s going to be alright. Peter’s mother […]
Towards the end of last year I’d been working with a team from the BBC who were making a film about my Open Justice work. You can watch the end result here if you’re interested. One of the team connected me with Angela Marber. I’ve only known Angela for about 8 months, we’ve not yet […]