A 13 month old child had died. The coroner found that the cause had been an unsafe sleeping environment, but his verdict also made reference to a fact as found that she had been anally penetrated in the hours before her death. The father now applied to have those references removed from the review.
Held: The request was refused: ‘although bound to remain within the scope of section 10, it would be wrong as a matter of principle for this court to attempt to micromanage inquests by constraining the proper discretion of a Coroner to record the answer to the ‘how’ question in light of all his findings of fact. A court should be cautious before interfering to require the striking out of unchallengeable findings of fact which a coroner has carefully considered to be sufficiently important by way of explanation of the means of death to include them within a determination of a section 5(1) question including how an individual came by his or her death.’
Citations:
[2018] EWHC 3386 (Admin)
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Coroners
Updated: 15 October 2022; Ref: scu.631225