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.