The Weekly Law Reports
[2002] 3 WLR 505
Court of Appeal
Regina (Amin)
v
Secretary of State for the Home Department
Regina (Middleton)
v
West Somerset Coroner
[2002] EWCA Civ 390
2002 Feb 18,
19,
20;
March 27
March 27
Lord Woolf CJ, Laws and Dyson LJJ
Coroner
— Inquest
— Verdict
— Death in prison
— Prisoner known as suicide risk taking own life
— Coroner directing jury not to return verdict referring to neglect
— Coroner refusing to append to inquisition jury's note indicating Prison Service's failed duty towards prisoner
— Whether jury entitled to return verdict of neglect
— Whether inquest meeting state's duty to investigate deaths
—
Coroners Act 1988 (c 13), s. 11
—
Human Rights Act 1998 (c 42), Sch. 1, Pt I, art 2
—
Coroners Rules 1984 (SI 1984/552), r 42
Human rights
— Right to life
— State's duty to investigate death
— Prisoner murdered by cellmate with history of violence
— Secretary of State refusing to hold independent public investigation into death
— Nature and scope of procedural duty
— Whether public scrutiny and family participation required
—
Human Rights Act 1998, Sch. 1, Pt I, art 2