Exercising judicial discretion and the emergence of common sense

I’m going to try and keep this brief, a feat I rarely manage. Two weeks ago I had to travel from Devon to Kent to report on the third pre-inquest review hearing into the death of Sammy Alban-Stanley. I say I had to, I had applied to the court to attend via audio link and […]

Disapplying Section9 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981: a pre-action letter

Last week I had to make the trip to Kent to attend the final pre-inquest review hearing into the death of Samuel Alban-Stanley. You can read more about Sammy here and you can read more about Kent County Council seeking to refuse permission to disclose an internal audit report into Sammy’s death in the write […]

‘The Chilling Effect of Disclosure’ at Kent County Council

It’s been a long day today, I was up before dawn to travel to Kent for the third pre-inquest review hearing into the death of Samuel Alban-Stanley. Sammy was just 13 when he died last April, a few weeks into the first lockdown. You can read more about Sammy and what happened in this post […]

NHS non-apologies: the cases of Laura Booth and Richard Handley

What a week. On Monday Assistant Coroner Abigail Combes delivered a blistering conclusion in Sheffield Coroner’s Court, into the death of Laura Jane Booth. Laura died in October 2016, but there was no inquest into the circumstances of Laura’s death. 18 months later an inquest was opened following the intervention of BBC Breakfast journalist Jayne […]

Family Statement Conclusion Laura Booth’s Inquest

Laura was a much loved and longed for daughter who completed our family, when she died a part of us died with her. Laura loved people and people loved Laura. She communicated using Makaton, actions, gestures, a few words and considered use of blowing raspberries. Laura was very able to make decisions, and ensure her […]

Rachel Johnston PFD Hearing

I was in court this morning for the resumption of Rachel Johnston’s inquest. It was part heard as one of the witnesses suffered a bereavement and it was agreed that it would be resumed to hear remaining evidence which spoke to the Coroner’s responsibility to issue a Prevention of Future Deaths report if he had […]

Transforming LEDER

Earlier this week I received an email from someone who’s job title is ‘National Transformation Lead for LeDeR’. This was a bit of a surprise, imagine a programme that’s only 6yrs old requiring a ‘national transformation lead’. It’s such an NHS response to things. Invent a programme, poorly resource it, put in poor leadership at […]

The Life and Death of Matthew Copestick

Last month the inquest into the death of Matthew Copestick concluded, two years to the day that he died, on 8 January 2019. I spoke with Matthew’s mum Helen and had the pleasure of reading the eulogy from his funeral. I wanted to share a little about Matthew with you before getting into his inquest. […]