There were 16 PFDs following conclusions of inquests relating to autistic people in 2023, and I’ve reviewed some here and others here. This is the next three deaths, with one further post to follow. Liam Bentley was 25 when he died in June 2022. The Senior Coroner for Mid Kent and Medway, Patricia Harding, who […]
Today, the tenth day of Gaia’s inquest, the whole day was spent hearing evidence from her aunt, Talia Pope. Her evidence will be finished tomorrow morning, but as I’m unfortunately not available to hear it, I thought I’d blog now. The coroner took Talia through her evidence, and she also played a number of recordings […]
Today in court we heard the first of the evidence from Gaia’s family members. After another delayed start due to housekeeping and scheduling matters which we are not permitted to report upon, the jury were brought into court just before 11am. Clara Pope Sutherland, Gaia’s elder sister, was called to give evidence. After confirming some […]
There was a pre inquest review hearing yesterday but there’s a restriction on what can be reported, that also applies to discussions that take place when the jury aren’t in court. So I can’t tell you about them, which is irksome. We were due to start at 10am today, the jury weren’t brought into court […]
Day 6 of Gaia’s inquest started with the evidence of mental health nurse Louise Emeny Senior, who at the time of Gaia’s October 2017 admission was a liaison psychiatry practitioner working at Poole General Hospital. Throughout the questioning of Mrs Emeny Senior by Ms Clarke, counsel to the inquest, the Coroner, and by Ms Miles […]
When I’m reporting from an inquest I try to just share the testimony that’s given. Which is much easier with live tweeting because you don’t select any, I just splurge as much out there as possible and readers can make their own minds up. For Gaia’s inquest I’ve decided not to live tweet because I […]
This morning was the fourth day of Gaia’s inquest and the morning was taken up with one witness, Professor Matthew Walker, a Professor of Neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London and at UCL. Most of the questioning came from counsel to the inquest, Sarah Clarke, and the Coroner. Professor Walker […]
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 […]
In April and May 2019 I live-tweeted the inquest into the death of Sasha Forster. You can read a little about Sasha in this twitter thread here. The funding to cover Sasha’s inquest was part of an Ideas and Pioneers grant awarded to me by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, to explore the impact and future […]
The CQC Deaths Review publishes today. You can download and read the report here. It makes for a gut churning read. The headline message is that the NHS is failing to identify deaths that need investigating, failing to investigate properly (when investigations happen) and failing to learn lessons, improve care or prevent future deaths. It […]