Coroner's verdict a whitewash - challenge to follow

Dr. Andrew Reid, the coroner for Inner North London, held a hearing last Thursday to deliver his verdict on the cause of my mum's death. Unsurprisingly, and in a highly criticised move, Dr. Reid decided to hand down a verdict of death by natural causes after failing in his legal duties to hold a full and proper inquest. Indeed, he did not even back up his verdict with reference to any law whatsoever, seemingly showing an arrogance for the position which he holds. My family now intend to take this further and will be writing to the Office for Judicial Supervision

After criticising my family for walking out of the hearing when he refused to hear our evidence, Dr. Reid said that my family's evidence was "irrelevant". With aggression imbued throughout a rushed verbal judgment where he refused to look at my family once, Dr. Reid said he was not interested in the high drug treatments my mother was forceably given, nor was he interested that my mum was regularly assaulted by patients due to her vulnerable nature. Dr. Reid clearly thought that is was acceptable to leave my mother with a number of serious health conditions untreated for months, including MRSA. He also condoned the actions of staff of the mental hospital the night my mum died, even though a security guard was found to have delayed life-saving treatment by sleeping whilst on duty, not allowing an ambulance crew access to the building.

However, as he went on to explain, he had a number of "more pressing cases" than the death of my mum. We believe this to be a miscarriage of justice, and incredibly disrespectful to the memory of my mother who, for over 40 years of her life, suffered the indignities and discrimination associated with a mental illness. Of course, his decision cannot go unchallenged and we look forward to holding Dr. Reid to account at the High Court in the coming weeks.

My family and I would like to express our thanks to everyone who has joined the campaign over the last few weeks - the supportive messages have been a true source of strength for us and we cannot thank enough all those who have offered to help. With the Mental Health Bill currently gong through Parliament - which will mean more people will find themselves coming in contact with mental health services - we believe it is vital to campaign for change.

Anything less would be disrespectful to my mother's memory, and to the memories of all who have not survived the mental health system in this country. It is not merely a matter of poor public services, but literally a matter of life and death.

In the next few days we will be asking our supporters for their assistance more than ever by writing to government officials and we plan to set up an online petition soon. Until then, my family and I would like to wish you a peaceful week.

Kind wishes,
Steven Allen and family

Are you available this Thursday 12th July at 9am?

After almost five weeks since the coroner adjourned the Inquest into my mum's death my family have finally been informed that Dr. Andrew Reid intends to hand down his judgment in open court this Thursday 12th July at 9am.

Whilst my family took the unusual step of walking out of the evidence stage of the hearing, because we believed that Dr. Reid wasn't interested in listening to us, it is vitally important for us to hear what he has to say on Thursday. His judgment should provide reasons that he decided not to hear any of our legal submissions, and will likely form the basis of our return to the High Court.

If you are available on Thursday morning for an hour or so then please try to come to the court to show your support. The address is:

St Pancras Coroner's Court
Camley Street
London
NW1 0PP

A map of the location can be found here and the court is about a 5-10min walk from King's Cross St. Pancras Tube and Train Stations. Your support would be greatly appreciated.

If you intend to come then please drop me a quick email to let me know - steven.allen@gmail.com.

With very best wishes to you all.
Steven

A short update

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, but things are still moving forward in my mum's case, behind the scenes.

Dr. Andrew Reid, HM Coroner for Inner North London, and the coroner who has been conducting my mother's inquest, has still not given my family and I any indication of when he intends to deliver his judgment. This is despite all the evidence being heard over three weeks ago and my family are upset that he appears to be treating us with such contempt.

In any event, we are making preparations to challenge him again in the High Court if he does not dramatically change the way he has dealt with my mum's death. He has not heard the evidence my family wish to provide, and he still appears to be thinking that my mum's death is not worth proper consideration.

In an important development in my mum's case, we can confirm that a major national charity has agreed to support my family's fight for justice, agreeing that my mum's death raises wide questions about mental health and inquest law in Britain. Further information will follow about this shortly.

Although people who die in prison automatically get a broad inquest into the circumstances of their death - and rightfully so - detained mental health patients do not. It cannot be right that our society ignores some of the most vulnerable members of our society in such a deplorable way.

We would therefore like to announce that we will be holding a public meeting in the next couple of weeks, in my mum's memory. We are in the process of inviting a number of speakers to discuss the issues raised by my mum's death and will use the event as an opportunity to push for change for all mental health patients in Britain.

Finally, we urge you to tell your friends, family and colleagues about our campaign for justice. My family and I are committed to pushing for change and we can't do it without your support.

With kindness,
Steven Allen

Press Coverage, and Dr. Reid wavers

The first article online about my mum's case can now be found on the Camden New Journal website here. You can send your comments into the paper at the bottom of the article, so please do so if you can.

It appears that the Coroner, Dr. Andrew Reid, may be taking his time to come to a verdict, though has indicated that he is heading towards a verdict of 'death by natural causes'.

My family and I believe this would be a miscarriage of justice.


With thanks to the Islington Tribune

Of course, my family think that my mum's death was preventable, and though Dr. Anna McGuiness from University College Hospital said it was not from an A&E medicine point of view, my family have evidence to suggest that my mum should never have been given the sandwich that choked her in the first place.

Indeed, there may also be further implications for the security guard that was sleeping the night of my mum's death too. However, in a dramatic turn of events last Tuesday, Dr. Reid said he'd been completely unable to find the security guard to give evidence, with the last known information about him being that he'd gone on a 'long holiday' to the Caribbean.

And, although my mum's death may have ultimately been due to choking on a sandwich, the question still remains as to why the hospital did not prevent this, my mum being assaulted, my mum being prescribed powerful anti-psychotics inappropriate for her age, and why staff seriously neglected my mum on a systematic basis.

My family and I now believe that Dr. Reid has wavered in the face of our opposition to his appalling conduct in this case, leaving open the possibility that he could still change his mind before giving his verdict, thereby summoning the jury we require. Fingers crossed but, of course, we will fight on if he doesn't see sense.

Further updates will follow this week.
Steven

Jeremy Corbyn MP agrees to give evidence

Today I met with Jeremy Corbyn MP to discuss my mum's case. He passed on his sincere condolences to my family and agreed, in an almost unprecedented move, to submit evidence to Dr. Andrew Reid, the Coroner, about my mum's death.

After my mum was physically assaulted in January last year and the attacks continued, my family wrote to Mr. Corbyn to intervene. He wrote to the mental health trust asking for a report and suggesting that things should improve, and he is now prepared to tell Dr. Reid why he thought my mum's care was sub-standard.

My family are also in negotiations with a national charity who are interested in the case and will be helping out. Information will follow about this shortly.

Finally, in the next couple of weeks, my family are planning to organise a public meeting and a candle-lit vigil outside the Highgate Mental Health Centre where my mum died. We are doing this to tell our friends and supporters in person about what happened to my mum, and why we need to keep fighting for justice. Again, details will follow.

I'll sign off by saying that media attention is starting to pick up, with the first article about my mum's case published in the Islington Gazette today. We have a number of other articles coming up soon and we think the national press are soon to start reporting the case.

We will keep trying to get this information out as widely as we can so that we can get things changed, once and for all, so that no family ever has to go through the tragedy that we have.

With peace to you all,
Steven

Walking Out of Court

I write this update after two days of my family trying - and, ultimately, being unable - to get justice for my mum in the British courts.

At the end of last week, solicitors instructed by my family lodged urgent Judicial Review proceedings at the High Court in London, to apply for an order that the inquest in my mum's death - set for Tuesday - be mandatorily adjourned.

Unfortunately, Mr. Justice Underhill, who heard our urgent application on Monday afternoon, was not persuaded that the inquest - being heard by Dr. Andrew Reid, HM Coroner for Inner North London - be adjourned at short notice. He did, however, give Dr. Reid a second chance to consider his positions on very important aspects of the inquest, including:

• his failure to call a jury to hear the matter, which the family want because we dispute some of the facts about the way in which my mum died, and that juries are a fundamental principle of Justice in democracies, which we have a right to;
  
  
• his failure to call expert evidence about the way CPR was commenced, the delay of ambulance staff getting to my mum due to a security guard sleeping, and strong drug treatments which were completely inappropriate for my mum;
  
  
• his failure even to call myself as a witness, though I was the person who formally identified my mother after her death; and
  
  
• his serious failure to investigate the circumstances surrounding my mum's death, in breach of the Human Rights Act, whereby my family wished to give evidence that my mum was physically assaulted on numerous occasions, that staff failed to see all the risks to my mum, and left her untreated for serious health problems which had a severe strain on her.

Appallingly, Dr. Reid had not even given reasons for these decisions, choosing to force my family to take him to the High Court. I cannot explain how stressful the entire experience was.

Although we were unsuccessful in getting the inquest yesterday adjourned, Mr. Justice Underhill did allow us the opportunity to go back to the High Court if the coroner failed to act in accordance with the law.

My family and I then worked late into Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday morning, preparing all the legal documents for the inquest. As the coroner had refused to adjourn the hearing, my family had not been given enough time to get legal aid, and so I was forced to be the advocate in court.

On my first occasion having to give legal argument in court, I was patronised, bullied and maligned by Dr. Reid. Instead of wishing to hear my reasons for applying, again, for him to take his duties seriously in this case and therefore adjourn, he decided to shout at me for calling him 'Your Honour' rather than 'Sir'.

He refused to grant the adjournment and said he was not bound by the Human Rights Act - a very serious error in law for a judge to make, and which we intend to expose when we go to the High Court. Whilst the witnesses from the hospital where my mum died were represented by a senior and experienced solicitor, Dr. Reid refused to accept that my family even needed legal representation.

My family then agreed that Dr. Reid was clearly not going to listen to anything we said, whether in law or in evidence, and so we decided to leave the courtroom, to Dr. Reid's shock and surprise. When we return to the High Court, we will be applying for the inquest - which he continued to hear evidence for after we had walked out - to be quashed and heard before a less biased coroner who is able to make his decisions in line with the law.

Friends and family were at the court yesterday and provided much-needed support to us all, at a time when we feel that our rights - and our mum's memory - are simply being trampled upon. We would like to thank all those who have supported us so far, and we intend to continue the fight until we get justice.

Justice for Sandra - An Introduction

Sandra Jean Allen was born on 17th July 1945 and died whilst detained under the powers of the Mental Health Act 1983 at a hospital in North London. Sandra was my mother.

The purpose of this blog is to keep friends, colleagues and supporters updated about my family's struggle for justice about my mother's death. My family and I believe that the circumstances of my mum's death raise serious questions about the entire mental health sector in Britain.

My mum suffered from Bipolar Affective Disorder - known to many as 'manic depression' - and fought a lifetime battle against this condition for over 40 years of her life. In the latter years of her illness, my mum had to be admitted on many occasions to hospital as my family and I simply could not care for her at home during crises.

Sadly, my mother died in hospital, in shocking circumstances.

My mother died on 2nd October 2006 after being found on the floor in the bathroom on a ward in hospital. My mum had been falling regularly due to severe strain on her body caused by serious physical health problems, many of which were untreated by nurses, including MRSA.

The drug treatment included a drug named acuphase - a 'major tranquilliser' - a drug that would normally not be used on elderly patients such as my mum. Nursing staff have said they thought my mum had the 'constitution of an elephant' and so gave it to her anyway. However, they didn't take into account the fact that my mum had a heart condition, and acuphase is known for causing heart failure - which my mum died from.

However, this is just one of the failings in her care. My mum, sadly, suffered numerous attacks from other patients, and, she stated, staff, because she was doubly incontinent. Her dignity was frequently trampled upon and staff admitted they simply could not deal with my mother's physical health problems. They also failed to assess the risks posed to my mother by other patients and her treatment, and her physical health rapidly deteriorated during her last hospital admission.

On 17th August 2006 my mum was seriously assaulted by a younger patient. This patient was moved to another ward, but shortly after allowed back after writing an apology. But the attacks did not stop - and staff continued to ignore the risks faced by my mum.

Injuries started to appear all over my mother's body and staff could not account for them. Indeed, they said my mum fell a lot - but didn't do anything to help her. Indeed, they never even did a proper risk assessment.

On the night of my mum's death, she should have been supervised to her bathroom where she told staff she would go to the toilet. Mysteriously, the hospital staff have claimed that my mum no longer needed constant observation as she had been cured of incontinence, falling and risks from other patients.

My mum laid on the floor of her bathroom for 10 minutes before anyone noticed.

What happened next is almost as shocking as the overall care that my mother received whilst in hospital. A duty doctor didn't have the correct life-saving equipment and commenced CPR, allegedly, before clearing my mum's airways. Staff were unable to use oxygen equipment and, during this time, my mum was being starved of oxygen.

Although ambulance staff were called, a security guard at the mental hospital was sleeping, and they weren't able to get access to the building for 6-7 minutes - the last minutes of my mother's life. My mum died shortly after being rushed to the local A&E Department.

A coroner opened an Inquest into my mother's death but has refused to hear all the evidence in the case. My family and I are challenging this decision in the High Court. We believe that the problems experienced by my mum were systemic withing the hospital where she died, and senior staff confirmed that disciplinaries were rising and the training of staff was poor.

We now want justice for what happened to my mother - Justice for Sandra, and justice for all vulnerable patients within the mental health system.

Please sign up to receive updates in respect of my mum's campaign. Put your email into the 'subscribe' box on the right-hand side of the page to receive all future updates.

I intend to keep this blog updated for everyone interested in my mum's case. We cannot allow the failings within the mental health sector to continue and we will fight until we get the justice that my mum - and all mental health patients - deserve.

Mental health patients should no longer be stigmatised - support our campaign for justice.