28/01/2011-31/07/2017 Coco was the most perfect, precious little girl, who was at the centre of our family. She loved Justin Bieber and Little Mix, chocolate brownies and ice cream, and all things Disney especially Toy Story. Coco attended St Ives Infant School and was awaiting starting school full time when she died, aged just 6, in […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Long blog title, apologies, lots to say. I am going to try and keep this blog post brief*, because it’s a Bank Holiday Monday and I’m not sure there will be anyone around to read it, and I have limited emotional energy left in the bank for the detail of this. Before I go any […]
I’m raging. Absolutely raging (still) at how Kirsten Major, CEO of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust chose to respond to the media following the conclusion of the inquest into the death of Laura Booth. I wrote about it yesterday, you can read it here but please come back. This treatment of Laura’s parents, this giving […]
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 […]
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. […]
This afternoon, Senior Coroner for Worcestershire David Reid found that Rachel Johnston died as a result of complications of necessary surgery, to which neglect contributed. In the summing up of his evidence the Coroner said: Despite all the challenges which Rachel had to face she was a lively and happy woman who loved music, theatre […]
The final evidence was heard in Rachel Johnston’s inquest today. There was a discussion before we heard from the expert witness about how to handle the evidence of the Registered Manager at Pirton Grange, who’s evidence was part heard on Tuesday. She’d described Rachel as ‘a personality that brightened up any room… a joy to […]