2004

Cases Reported

R (Green) v Police Complaints Authority	1
Issue: Whether a person who made a complaint against police was entitled to disclosure of the statements obtained in a subsequent investigation.

R (Middleton) v HM Coroner for the Western District of Somerset	17
Issue: The procedural obligations of Art 2 European Convention, the right to life, in relation to deaths in custody.

R (Sacker) v HM Coroner for West Yorkshire	28
Issue: Whether Art 2 required that a coroner allow a jury to consider adding a rider of neglect in relation to a suicide in custody.

In Re McKerr (Northern Ireland)	35
Issue: Whether there was an Art 2 procedural duty to conduct an adequate investigation into a death occurring before the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) came into force; whether one remained a 'victim' within s7 of the HRA once just satisfaction had been awarded by the European Court of Human Rights.

R (Longfield Care Homes Ltd) v HM Coroner for Blackburn	50
Issue: Whether there was sufficient evidence to support a verdict of accidental death. The use of narrative verdicts where the death resulted from more than one different cause.

R (Jane Challender (1) Paulette Morris (2)) v Legal Services Commission	58
Issue: Whether Art 2 could be invoked to challenge a refusal of LSC funding where the deceased had died before the Human Rights Act came into force. Whether the state’s Art 2 obligation to investigate death was limited to cases where the death involved state agents. Whether legal representation was necessary for effective participation in the inquest

Stewart (1) and Howard (2) v Medway NHS Trust	71
Issue: Whether the costs of preparing for and attending an inquest were recoverable as part of a fatal accident clinical negligence claim.

Jacqueline King (Adminstratrix Of The Estate Of Robert Gadd, Deceased) v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust	72
Issue: Whether the costs of attending an inquest, questioning witnesses, making submissions on law and adducing evidence to an inquest were recoverable as part of a fatal accident clinical negligence claim.

R (Officer A and Officer B) v HM Coroner for Inner South London; and Family of Derek Bennett (1) and Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis (2) (as interested parties)	76
Issue: Whether a police officer who reasonably feared for his life was entitled to anonymity at an inquest.

Family of Derek Bennett v Officer A (1) Officer B (2); and HM Coroner (1) Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis (2) (as interested parties)	81
Issue: Whether a police officer who reasonably feared for his life was entitled to anonymity at an inquest.

Attorney General v Hartwell	89
Issue: Whether the AG was vicariously liable for a police officer’s conduct in shooting a person; whether it was negligent to allow the officer to have access to a gun.

R (Davies) v HM Deputy Coroner for Birmingham (Costs)	96
Issue: The approach to be taken when deciding whether to award costs against a coroner or other inferior tribunal.

R (Collins) v HM Coroner for Inner South District of Greater London	106
Issue: Whether it was a wrongful exercise of discretion to appoint a deputy coroner and sit without a jury.

Öneryildiz v Turkey	108
Issue: Whether Art 2 ECHR applied to state activities, such as industrial activities, which did not involve the use of force but in which the right to life may be at stake.

R v Misra; R v Srivastava	140
Issue: Where death followed medical negligence, whether the ingredients of the offence of manslaughter by gross negligence were sufficiently clearly defined so as to be compatible with the ECHR

R (Anderson) v HM Coroner for Inner North Greater London	155
Issue: Whether an inquest verdict of unlawful killing should be quashed in circumstances where the coroner’s summing up was inadequate and the jury’s finding perverse.

R (Al Skeini and Others) v Secretary of State for Defence (Redress Trust intervening)	168
Issue: Whether various deaths in Iraq occurred within the jurisdiction of the UK so as to fall within the scope of the ECHR and the Human Rights Act 1998; if so, whether there had been an adequate enquiry into the death for the purposes of Arts 2 and 3.

Goodson v HM Coroner for Bedfordshire and Luton	226
Issue: Whether the Art 2 procedural obligation to carry out an effective investigation into a death only arose in circumstances in which it appeared that the substantive obligations of Art 2 had been, or may have been, violated or applied also where a death in hospital raised no more than a potential liability in negligence.

Bloom v HM Assistant Deputy Coroner for the Northern District of London	244
Issue: Whether it was desirable in the interests of justice to order a new inquest which could consider medical evidence some of which had been available to the family of the deceased at the time of the original inquest but had not been provided to the coroner.

R (Takoushis) v HM Coroner for Inner North London	248
Issue: Whether a jury ought to have been summoned and expert evidence heard in respect of the adequacy of a system which failed to prevent a psychiatric patient absconding from hospital and killing himself.

Smiley v Home Office	256
Issue: Whether there was a breach of a duty to prevent prisoner suicides.