Philip Rule KC (No5 Barristers’ Chambers) and Cormac McDonagh (Hodge Jones & Allen) represent the claimant who, on 17 October 2024 at the Administrative Court sitting in London, has been granted permission to judicially review the inquest held inquiring into the death of her son, Ronald (R (Robinson) v HM Assistant Coroner for Blackpool and Fylde; and the Chief Constable of Lancashire Police).
Ronald died after swallowing a package upon being stopped by police in Blackpool. Officers used force, including a choke hold, and asserted that this was in the course of restraint. The jury recorded a short-form conclusion of misadventure.
It is claimed that the Assistant Coroner was wrong to rule that no duty to investigate arose under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights 1950.
In particular, the judicial review challenges that the jury was consequently wrongly prevented from:
- Considering matters that presented a real opportunity for Ronald’s life to have been saved (even if not positively causing his death);
- Returning judgmental narrative conclusions; and/or
- Addressing by its findings the core or central issues in the inquest.
The claimant challenges the absence of adequate direction and/or the neutral-only conclusions permitted to the jury.
It is also challenged that the Assistant Coroner had concerns over the training of police officers in matters that would be relevant to preventing future deaths from choking, and considered that action should be taken, but nonetheless declined to discharge the statutory duty to make a Prevention of Future Deaths Report imposed by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (paragraph 7 of Schedule 5).
The case was originally brought by the claimant in person. The Court permitted the claimant’s grounds to be amended, and for the claim to proceed to a judicial review hearing. That hearing is to be listed in Manchester.