The court was asked whether a coroner or a coroner’s jury, after hearing the evidence at an inquest into a death, may lawfully record a conclusion to the effect that the deceased committed suicide reached on the balance of probabilities; or whether such a conclusion is only permissible if it has been proved to the criminal standard of proof (i.e. so that the coroner or jury is sure that the deceased did an act which was intended to and did cause his or her own death).
Held: The claim failed.
There is a logical difficulty: ‘A narrative conclusion to the effect that on the balance of probabilities the deceased did a deliberate act which caused his own death intending the outcome to be fatal clearly amounts to a conclusion that the deceased committed suicide whether or not the word ‘suicide’ is used. It is sophistry to say that such a conclusion is not one of suicide because the required standard of proof has not been met. The standard of proof even if referred to in the record of inquest, as it was in this case, is not itself part of the substantive conclusion adopted by the coroner or jury. It is simply a statement of the evidential test which must be met in order to reach a particular conclusion. If the standard of proof required to determine that the deceased committed suicide is the criminal standard and the necessary facts have been proved only on the balance of probabilities, this does not mean that a conclusion which records those facts is not one of suicide. It means that the coroner or jury cannot lawfully reach that conclusion.’
‘We consider the true position to be that the standard of proof required for a conclusion of suicide, whether recorded in short-form or as a narrative statement, is the balance of probabilities, bearing in mind that such a conclusion should only be reached if there is sufficient evidence to justify it.’
Judges:
Leggatt LJ, Nicol J
Citations:
[2018] EWHC 1955 (Admin), [2018] Inquest LR 225, [2018] ACD 105, [2019] 1 All ER 561
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
At First Instance – Maughan, Regina (on The Application of) v Her Majesty’s Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire CA 10-May-2019
Standard of Proof of Suicide at Inquest
Questions of importance concerning the law and practice of coroners’ inquests where an issue is raised as to whether the deceased died by suicide. The questions can be formulated as follows:
(1) Is the standard of proof to be applied the . .
At Admn – Maughan, Regina (on The Application of) v Her Majesty’s Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire SC 13-Nov-2020
Standard of Proof for Narrative Verdict
‘This appeal arises out of the inquest held into the death of Mr James Maughan. It concerns the standard of proof, or degree of conclusivity, required for the determination of the result of an inquest into a death where the question is whether the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Coroners
Updated: 01 April 2022; Ref: scu.620653
