Court of Appeal Judgment

Dear All,

On Thursday last week, the Court of Appeal handed down their judgment in respect of our Appeal against the High Court's decision to refuse Permission for a Judicial Review of the Coroner's inquest after my mother's death.

Although the judgment will be an important one, their Lordships, headed by Lord Justice Dyson, refused the Appeal based on a very narrow interpretation of the law and facts. The judgment can be found online here: BAILII.

Importantly, they rejected the High Court's judgment that the duty to investigate a potential breach of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights was not engaged. Indeed, they found that it was, and will now be engaged in all future cases of deaths in mental health detention.

Yet, they decided that the scope of such an inquiry was not very broad, and decided to limit this to those things which were arguable causative of death. They decided not to take into account the systemic failings which we alleged were occurring when my mother died, and instead chose to limit their judgment to finding that "nothing could have been done" to save my mother's life.

We think they have missed the point.

To simply reduce all the matters to a set of distinct failings - which they accepted were unacceptable - meant that the Court of Appeal has failed to understand the nature of the systemic failings that led to my mother's death. A key aspect of all inquests is to ensure that wrongs can be righted, and to protect future people from such situations occurring again.

Without a new and broader inquiry, taking into account the systemic failings in my mother's case, over 300 patients a year will continue to die while complusorily detained under the Mental Health Act. Lessons will continue to remain unlearnt. Mental health patients will continue to be unsafe, and future deaths will continue to be dealt with in a cursory manner. This is unacceptale in modern-day Britain.

My family and I are currently in the process of preparing our grounds to Petition the House of Lords for Permission to Appeal this latest, narrow judgment. We believe that the Court of Appeal are effectively saying that even though Article 2 was engaged, this means very little for the investigation of the deaths of mental health detention. This is surely wrong and is of significant public concern.

Juries currently hear inquests of all deaths that occur in custody. These inquests are generally broader, and usually take account of potential and alleged systemic failings. All we are asking for is the equal treatment of the deaths of mental health patients.

Unfortunately, it appears that legal aid may not be available for my family to continue our battle in the courts. We are likely, therefore, to have to deal with this final stage of the British courts systems ourselves. The fight for justice up to now has been long and hard, yet we believe that to discontinue now would be to give up. The implications for people across the country are too broad, and the case too complex, to make such a decision lightly, but we believe it is the only way to bring to light the shocking discrimination faced by mental health patients day in, day out.

This week, an average of 7 people will die whilst detained in mental health institutions in England and Wales. It is in their name, and the name of my mother, that we will continue to strive for justice.