INQUEST e-newsletter issue 22

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Latest publications. Welcome to the July-August edition of the INQUEST e-newsletter .... Despite running a reduced servi
Issue 22 – August 2013

Contents       

Latest News Casework Deaths in custody – latest statistics Fundraising Staff and volunteers Spreading the word Latest publications

Welcome to the July-August edition of the INQUEST e-newsletter

Latest News IPCC annual statistics on deaths in or following police contact published The Independent Police Complaints Commission published its figures on deaths during or following police contact in England and Wales for the financial year 2012-13. There were 15 deaths in police custody, the same number as the previous year. Seven out of the 15 people that died were known to have mental health issues, the same proportion as last year. Four of the deaths were known to have occurred following restraint. There was also a significant rise in the number of suicides following release from police custody – 64 deaths, the highest number since the IPCC came into existence. Almost two thirds were known to have mental health issues. INQUEST responded to the figures by repeating our call for a national strategy on mental health and policing. We were quoted widely in the national and regional press. High Court challenge to lack of independent mechanism to investigate deaths in mental health detention INQUEST has been working with Dr Michael Antoniou who brought a high court challenge to the system for investigating deaths in psychiatric detention in England and Wales in July. Dr Antoniou is the husband of Janey Antoniou, who died in October 2010 whilst being detained under the Mental Health Act. The inquest into her death took place last year, and revealed some critical failures in her care. Following Janey’s death, Dr Antoniou asked for the investigation to be conducted prior to the inquest by people independent of Central and North West London NHS Trust, whose care she was in when she died. The Trust refused, as did the then Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley. page 1 of 8

Issue 21 – June 2013

Unlike deaths of people in prison, police, or immigration detention, deaths of patients detained in psychiatric hospitals are investigated by the very Trust responsible for their care, raising serious questions over the impartiality of such an investigation. Dr Antoniou was given permission to judicially review the lack of an independent investigatory body. The full hearing took place on 25 July 2013. As well as acting as a support to Dr Antoniou, INQUEST provided a witness statement based on our history of working with families of those who die in psychiatric care. A judgment is expected in the autumn. Following this, Dr Antoniou and our co-director Deborah Coles featured in a File on 4 documentary broadcast on 30 July examining deaths in mental health settings, partly inspired by INQUEST’s work in this area. The 60th anniversary European Convention on Human Rights is something to be celebrated Tuesday 3 September marked the 60th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). INQUEST joined many other leading human rights organisations and civil society groups in signing a letter to the Daily Telegraph marking the occasion and calling for the UK’s commitment to human rights to be upheld and protected. Article 2 of the right to life and the duty to protect life has been significant in the investigation of custodial deaths. Rally for legal aid A rally was held outside the Old Bailey on 30 July to mark the 64th anniversary of the introduction of legal aid and to further protest against the proposed cuts. INQUEST’s co-director Helen Shaw addressed the rally along with several other prominent lawyers, NGOs and high profile individuals. Jimmy Mubenga rule 43 report published The coroner’s highly critical rule 43 report (where a coroner makes recommendations following a death) following the inquest into the death of Jimmy Mubenga was made public in early August. The report was largely aimed at the Home Office, whom the coroner held as ultimately responsible for instigating improvements to avoid a similar death happening again. As well as addressing procedural issues around restraint and delivery of first aid, it made highly unusual recommendations concerning the unlawful nature of the way Home Office subcontracting was carried out, and the culture of racism that was allowed to pervade the subcontractor, G4S. The report is available in full on the INQUEST website, and was covered in an exclusive piece in the Guardian newspaper. INQUEST willl be working with the family and their lawyers to ensure that the issues highlighted in the report are acted upon.

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Issue 21 – June 2013 Metropolitan Police make full public apology to family of Ian Tomlinson The Metropolitan Police finally made a full public apology to the family of Ian Tomlinson, who died following contact with police during the G20 protests in London in 2009. An out of court settlement was also reached. An inquest ruled in 2011 that Ian Tomlinson had been unlawfully killed, and a criminal prosecution was brought against the officer who pushed him, Simon Harwood. Mr Harwood was acquitted at his trial in 2012, however he was subsequently found guilty of gross misconduct by a police tribunal and dismissed. Ian Tomlinson’s family released a moving statement following the apology, marking an end to their campaign for justice. INQUEST has been working with the family since Ian’s death and is proud of all that they have achieved. Azelle Rodney: E7 to challenge Inquiry report in the High Court, with Metropolitan Police backing The police officer who shot and killed Azelle Rodney is going to court to challenge the ruling made by the chair of the inquiry into Azelle Rodney’s death that he was unlawfully killed. The Metropolitan Police announced in August that it would be supporting the challenge. Family marks fifth anniversary of the death of Sean Rigg A candlelight vigil was held outside Brixton police station to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of Sean Rigg, who died in police custody in Brixton in 2008. INQUEST has been working with the Rigg family throughout their tireless and determined battle for justice for Sean.

Casework Our casework team continued to deal with wide ranging enquiries from across England and Wales. Despite running a reduced service in August, in the period 1 July 2013 – 31 August 2013 the casework team opened 53 new cases of which 27 related to deaths in custody. 13 of those deaths in custody were prison deaths and 3 were police custody deaths. Significant cases and inquests Inquest jury rules neglect contributed to death of Andrzej Rymarzak A jury ruled in July that the death of Andrzej Rymarzak in police custody in Westminster was contributed to by neglect. 43 year old Andrzej Rymarzak was found collapsed in Old Brompton Street on 20 January 2009. An ambulance was called by a member of the public. MPS officers page 3 of 8

Issue 21 – June 2013 also attended and Mr Rymarzak was taken to the ground, sustaining a head injury. He was then arrested and taken to Chelsea Police Station. Despite being unable to walk unaided or speak coherently and despite knowledge of his other health issues including his head injury, schizophrenia and epilepsy, Mr Rymarzak was treated as fit to be detained. The inquest into Mr Rymarzak’s death concluded after almost 3 weeks with a critical narrative verdict in addition to a verdict of accidental death contributed to by neglect. The jury found that there were gross failings at every stage of Mr Rymarzak’s detention from the arresting officers, the actions of the London Ambulance Service, the Custody Sergeant and detention officers and the Forensic Medical Examiner at the police station. The failures include not taking him to hospital when he was clearly intoxicated by alcohol and had a head injury, failing to carry out appropriate or rousing checks on him in the police station and failing to carry out an adequate medical assessment of him. The coroner is considering what rule 43 recommendations should be made. INQUEST worked closely with the legal team and supported the family throughout the inquest and the four years leading up to it. The verdict was covered in a full page piece in London’s Evening Standard. Thomas Orchard The IPCC announced in August that they had referred seven police staff to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in connection with Thomas Orchard’s death in October 2012. Thomas, who suffered mental ill health, was arrested and restrained in Exeter and taken to a police station. He died a short time later. INQUEST is supporting Thomas’s family. High court rules IPCC investigation into death of Seni Lewis unlawful On 23 August, the High Court ruled that the IPCC investigation into the death of Olaseni ‘Seni’ Lewis was unlawful and should be quashed. The ruling following a judicial review brought by Seni’s family following a botched IPCC investigation and the Metropolitan Police’s refusal to let any of the officers involved in Seni’s death to be interviewed. The ruling allowed for a new investigation to begin and for the IPCC to compel the officers to be interviewed under caution. Seni died following restraint by up to 11 police officers after he had been taken to Bethlem Royal hospital following an episode of mental ill health. The ruling received national and local media coverage including a full report on the BBC. Mark Duggan The inquest into the death of Mark Duggan, who was shot by police in Tottenham in August 2011, begins on Monday 16 September. In an page 4 of 8

Issue 21 – June 2013 unusual move, the coroner for the inquest, HHJ Keith Cutler, took part in two question and answer sessions in Tottenham at the end of July with the local community and other interested parties. The anniversary of the death of Mark Duggan was marked by a public meeting in Tottenham on 3 August attended by over 200 people. As well as hearing from Mark Duggan’s family, the meeting was addressed by the families of several others who died in custody, including Roger Sylvester, Cynthis Jarrett, Sean Rigg and Joy Gardner – whose death 20 years ago was also marked by the meeting.

Deaths in custody in England & Wales 2013 As of 31 August 2013 there have been 133 deaths in prison custody this year, of which 44 were self-inflicted. Several of the self-inflicted deaths this year occurred in segregation, which is an ongoing concern for INQUEST. Deaths in prison custody to 31 August 2013 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Self-Inflicted

Non-SelfInflicted

Other Nonnatural causes

Restraint

Homicide

Awaiting Classification

Total

There have been 21 police deaths to the end of August 2013, eleven of which were custody deaths. Restraint continues to feature in custody deaths, as does the use of Tasers. Deaths in police custody or following police contact to 31 August 2013 25 20 15 10 5 0 Custody

Shooting

Pursuit

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RTI

Total

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Fundraising Gemma Vine and Imogen Hamblin to run the Bridlington Half Marathon for INQUEST We are very grateful to INQUEST Lawyers Group member Gemma Vine and her colleague Imogen Hamblin at Lester Morrill solicitors in Leeds who have taken on the challenge of running the Bridlington Half Marathon in October in aid of INQUEST. All sponsorship for this energetic endeavour gratefully received! Donations can be made via their JustGiving page. Summer appeal If you value the work we do and you want to make a contribution please consider becoming a regular supporter of INQUEST. A gift of just £10 per month helps secure INQUEST’s future and sustain our support for bereaved families. It’s easy to do – just go to our justgiving page and click on the monthly donation tab. If you are a tax payer and you Gift Aid your donation, the government will give us 25p for every pound you donate – at no extra cost to you.

You can also set up your own page to raise funds for us. Don’t forget that you can support INQUEST by using the Everyclick search engine too (www.everyclick.com/inquest) and also now using their Give as You Live app too – see the Everyclick website for more details.

Staff and volunteers We would like to thank Betsy Barkas, our fantastic Communications and Information Intern who left us in July, for all her hard work. She made an invaluable contribution to our work over the four months she was with us. We would also like to thank Roshan Croker, our equally excellent policy volunteer who left us in August, for all his hard work and support. Volunteer with INQUEST INQUEST is looking for volunteers for a number of different opportunities at our office in Finsbury Park.

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Issue 21 – June 2013 If you are interested in volunteering your time and skills we would love to hear from you. For more information please email [email protected] with a copy of your CV and details of your availability.

Spreading the word INQUEST has been getting people talking about what we do and why we do it. We are committed to working in partnership with bereaved families, other charities and non-governmental organisations to achieve change in the investigation and inquest process. We have also been improving links with our supporters using social networking and our website. Social networking We now have over 2500 Twitter followers and over 760 ‘likes’ on facebook! We’re really grateful for all your support and engagement with us. Many of the links to news stories, events and other information of interest in this newsletter are posted by INQUEST to our Facebook page and Twitter feed as well as on the website. This is a good way for us to hear from you too – please do continue to let us know your thoughts and opinions.

Join INQUEST on Facebook facebook.com/inquestUK

Follow INQUEST on Twitter twitter.com/ INQUEST_ORG

Latest publications Learning From Death in Custody Inquests: A New Framework for Action and Accountability This groundbreaking report highlights the serious flaws in the learning process following an inquest into a death in custody or following contact with state agents. Available as a free download from the INQUEST website or to buy in hard copy at a cost of £10. Fatally Flawed: has the state learned lessons from the deaths of children and young people in prison? This new evidence based report examining the experiences and treatment of children and young people who died in prison custody in England and Wales is published by INQUEST and the Prison Reform Trust. ‘Fatally Flawed: Has the state learned lessons from the deaths of children and young people in prison?’ is an in-depth analysis of the deaths of children and young people (aged 18-24) while in the care of the state. It is available as a free download on the INQUEST website. page 7 of 8

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Inquest Law magazine Issue 27 has just been published and issue 28 will follow in December. Issue 27 outlines the new coroners rules and has a comprehensive legal update and broad range of casenotes. Inquest Law is available as part of membership of the INQUEST Lawyers Group, or by stand-alone subscription from the INQUEST website. We also welcome advertising in the journal. The Inquest Handbook The Inquest Handbook is the fully revised and redesigned second edition of INQUEST’s comprehensive guide to the coroners’ inquest system in England and Wales, published in January 2011. Developed in collaboration with other specialist advice agencies and bereaved people who have been through the difficult circumstances of a death involving a coroner’s inquest, it is available for free to bereaved people from INQUEST. Thank you for sending me this handbook. It is an invaluable new resource... a number of our families every year need to attend inquests, as a majority of the deaths are sudden and unexpected. The handbook will be of great help to them… (Bereavement agency) I feel much better for speaking to you and really appreciate your calling me. My day has improved and is much brighter now. You're wonderful thank you so much. The handbook has been really helpful and I have learnt a lot from this. (Bereaved family member) You can find out more about and read the full Handbook online at www.handbook.inquest.org.uk. Other publications are available to download and order from INQUEST's website. For further information about any of the issues contained in this newsletter please contact [email protected] Disclaimer: INQUEST is not responsible for the content of external websites linked to from this newsletter.

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