| Inquests – An Information Pack for Families, Friends and Advisors |
The pack provides information on all aspects of the inquest system in an easy to use format. Designed for bereaved people, their friends, staff in advice and information centres and those working with bereaved people in a supportive role, it offers a comprehensive guide to the current system. It is also excellent for lawyers needing accessible background information. |
The Information Pack is available as a Free download (PDF, 379KB) while hard copies can be purchased for £10.00 (free to bereaved families and friends). |
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| Inquest Law magazine |
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Inquest Law is the journal of the INQUEST Lawyers Group (ILG). The journal highlights key cases and judgements and is an invaluable source of legal information for coroners, lawyers and barristers. Recently redesigned and expanded in full colour throughout.
Annual subscription rates are £50 per annum (or three issues) for non-ILG members, with single copies £15 each from Issue 13 onwards. Back issues are available at between £5 and £10 each.
More information about Inquest Law |
| INQUEST's recent publications |
INQUEST's parliamentary briefing on Counter
Terrorism Bill committee stage in House of
Commons (PDF, 142KB) |
Parliamentary briefing on proposals for "secret"
inquests in the Counter Terrorism Bill 2008
(PDF, 134KB) |
Submission to the Ministry of Justice &
Department for Children, Schools and Families
on the ‘Review of Restraint' (PDF,128KB) |
INQUEST's further evidence to the parliamentary
Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry
into the restraint of children (PDF, 29KB) |
INQUEST briefing on the restraint of children
and SI 2007 No 1709 regarding changes to the
Secure Training Centre Rules (PDF, 33KB) |
INQUEST's briefing on the death of Adam Rickwood (PDF, 36KB) |
INQUEST's briefing on the death of Gareth Myatt (PDF, 175KB) |
| Annual Reports |
| Annual Report 2006 |
more... INQUEST's work in 2006 is covered in sections which detail our casework, campaigning and a timeline of the year's key events.
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Free download (PDF, 180KB) |
| Annual Report 2005 |
more...
INQUEST's work in 2005 outlined in summary form.
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Free download (PDF, 115KB) |
| Annual Report 2004 |
more... Gives a comprehensive overview of the organisation over the year 2004. |
Free download (PDF, 448KB)
Buy £5 |
| Annual Report 2003 |
more... Examines the key issues that arose in 2003 and illustrates the change and expansion of the organisation which took place in that year. |
Free download (PDF, 1,151KB)
Buy £5 |
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| Annual Report 2002 |
more... Reports back
on the previous year and offers a comprehensive statistical analysis
of deaths in custody. |
Free download (PDF, 1,925KB)
Buy £5 |
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| Annual Report 2001 |
more...
INQUEST celebrates twenty years and notes how very few systemic changes have
occurred. INQUEST highlights its acheivments and key cases of the
last 20 years. |
Buy £5 |
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| Annual Report 2000 |
more...
Looks closely at the casework process and how it illustrates systemic failures and gives detailed case studies. |
Free download (PDF, 907KB)
Buy £5 |
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| Annual Report 1999 |
more...
Examines topical policy issues at the time, highlights INQUEST’s freedom of information award and other notable achievements. |
| Buy £5 |
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| Briefings and other publications |
| Briefing on Jean Charles de Menezes |
| A briefing on the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, written as a joint submission to the JCHR with the INQUEST Lawyers Group and the Police Actions Lawyers Group, March 2006. |
Briefing on the death of Jean Charles de
Menezes (PDF, 99KB) |
| Briefing on the Corporate Manslaughter Bill 2006 |
| INQUEST's briefing on and suggested amendments for the report stage of the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Bill 2006 can be downloaded from the link below. |
INQUEST's Corporate Manslaughter Bill
briefing (PDF, 111KB) |
| INQUEST's report on the death
of Christopher Alder |
more...
Christopher Alder, a 37 year old black former paratrooper, died on 1st April
1998 after being arrested outside Hull Royal Infirmary where he
had been taken after a fight outside a nightclub. He was taken
in a police van to the station where he was supported into the
custody suite and after 13 minutes of watching him struggling for
breath police officers called an ambulance. However despite resuscitation
attempts Mr Alder died. His death has raised questions about what
happened in the police van that night and why no police officer
in that room called for help earlier. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| INQUEST's report on the death
of Roger Sylvester - Updated 2003 |
more...
Roger Sylvester was a
30-year-old black man who died after being detained outside his
own house and restrained ‘for his own safety’ by eight
police officers. He was then taken to St Anne’s Hospital
where he was restrained for a further 20 minutes before dying.
Roger’s death raises many issues about black deaths in custody,
particularly of people with mental health problems. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| INQUEST's report on the death
of Harry Stanley |
more...
Harry Stanley was a 46-year-old Scottish painter and decorator and
father of three children. He had been out to pick up a table leg that had
recently been fixed. On his way home he was shot by
Metropolitan Police officers who had received a call that he was carrying a sawn off
shot gun in a plastic bag. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| INQUEST's report on the death
of David "Rocky" Bennett |
more...
David "Rocky" Bennett
had mental health problems throughout a lot of his life and was
eventually detained as a patient at the Norvic Clinic, an NHS medium
secure unit in Norwich. After incident involving racist abuse,
Rocky was restrained by nurses at the clinic. He was certified
dead on 31st October 1998. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| INQUEST's report on the death
of Glenn Howard April 2000 |
more...
Glenn Howard
was a 44-year-old musician. On 8 December 1997 he had been 'sectioned'
under Section 135 of the Mental Health Act 1983 after his condition
had deteriorated and he needed to spend time in hospital to receive
medication and support for his schizophrenia. This was his 13th
admission of this kind since 1973. He was reported missing on the
10th December. When the police found him they restrained him. Glen
later died. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| INQUEST's report on the death
of Katherine Woods and Tracey Logan |
more...
Two young women
hanged themselves in HMP Risley only days into sentences for non-violent
offences. Tracy Logan, a 24-year-old drug dependent, took her own
life on 24th August 1997, alone in a cell, days into a one-year
sentence for theft. This briefing examines important issues about
the treatment of drug dependent women prisoners and the quality
of the inquest as a forum for investigating such deaths. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| INQUEST's report on the death
of Ibrahima Sey 1997 |
more...
The jury sitting
with the Walthamstow Coroner at the inquest of Ibrahima Sey heard
extremely disturbing evidence about the treatment of this mentally
ill man by police officers. The inquest raised serious concerns
about the role of the police station as a place of safety and the
nature of the restraint used on him, including the then newly issued
CS spray. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| INQUEST's report on the death
of David Green 1997 |
more...
David Green
was 15 years old when he died. On his arrest he was sobbing and
pleading and said on more than one occasion that he would kill
himself if he was taken to the police station. He was found hanging
in Hartlepool Police Station on 31st March 1997. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| INQUEST's report on the death
of Alton Manning 1995 |
more...
Alton Manning
was the first person to die following trhe use of restraint in
a private prison in England. He was a 33-year-old black remand
prisoner who died whilst being restrained by police officers on
8th December 1995. The report looks at the details of his death
and the systemic failings that emerged as a result. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| INQUEST's report on the death
of Dennis Stevens 1995 |
more...
Dennis Stevens,
a 29 year old black prisoner died in October 1995 in a body belt
in a special cell in segregation block in HMP Dartmoor. His inquest
heard evidence from 61 witnesses. This report examines the controversial
issues surrounding restraint and details the events leading up
to Dennis’s death. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| INQUEST's report on the death
of Kenneth Severin 1995 |
more...
Kenneth Severin
was a 25-year-old African Caribbean man with serious mental health
problems. The decisision to remand him to HMP Belmarsh was one
that cost him his life. Kenneth had never been in prison before
and was remanded for tyring to gain entry to a house in which he
had once lived. Past diagnoses had suggested he was suffering from
paranoid schizophrenia and he was suffering mental health difficulties
at the time of the offence. This report examines key issues surrounding
the detention of those with mental health problems and the lack
of care they often receive. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| INQUEST's report on the death
of Shiji Lapite 1994 |
more...
Shiji Lapite
died on 16th December 1994 after being stopped by police officers
for ‘acting suspiciously’. The cause of death was asphyxia
from compression of the neck consistent with the application of
a neckhold. At the inquest officers admitted kicking Mr Lapite
in the head, biting him and placing him in a neckhold. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| INQUEST's report on the death
of Leon Patterson 1992 |
more...
Leon Patterson
was found dead in a Stockport police cell on 27 November 1992 .
He was 31 years old, of mixed race and lived in North London. During
the last 20 hours of his life despite being seen by two police
doctors he was left lying naked, his body covered in injuries,
on a stone floor groaning and incoherent. Neither doctor prescribed
any medication or treatment nor took any steps to get him to a
civilian hospital. |
Free download 
Buy £2 |
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| Dying on the Inside - Examining Women's Deaths in Prison - April 2008 |
Dying on the Inside is an examination of
INQUEST's casework on women's deaths in prison from 1990 – 2007. |
More Information |
Click here to download the executive summary (PDF, 30KB) |
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| Unlocking the Truth - Families' Experience of the Investigation of Deaths in Custody - September 2007 |
Unlocking the Truth describes the experiences of families bereaved by deaths in custody from the time of death to the conclusion of the investigation and inquest and situates them within the political, recent historical and legal context. |
More Information |
Click here to download the executive summary (PDF, 68KB) |
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| In the Care of the State? Child Deaths in Penal Custody in England and Wales - July 2005 |
A groundbreaking book that provides the first detailed analysis of child deaths in penal custody. The book presents key conclusions and recommendations. A must read for anyone who works around the issues of child welfare and human rights. |
More Information |
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| How the Inquest System Fails Bereaved People - February 2003 (second edititon August 2003) |
more...
A 60-page report that brings together the themes that have emerged from over 20 years of working with bereaved people and attending inquests. It gives a voice to bereaved peoples’ observations and concerns as well as their proposals for change. £5.00 or a free download PDF. |
Free download (PDF, 312KB) |
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| Inquests – A Practitioners
Guide by Leslie Thomas, Danny Friedman and Louise Christian.
Legal Action Group 2002 |
more...
The first specialist text available to guide those representing
bereaved families through the complexities of the inquest system.
Inquests: A Practitioners Guide lends a powerful voice to the
debate for a more humane and effective inquest system. |
Buy £42 (email to Legal Action Group) |
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| Inquests: Are they Delivering
Truth and Justice? - November 2001 |
more...
A report examining and questioning the boundaries of the inquest system
featuring transcripts of contributions from Louise Christian, Vera Baird QC, Deborah
Coles and Helen Shaw. £5.00
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| Police Custody - Response
to Complaints Against the Police Framework for a New System
- February 2001 |
more...
Renewing
public confidence in the complaints system will only be achieved
when there is a real openness and willingness to acknowledge
fault. The lack of public confidence is not a cosmetic/presentation
issue. It is not an issue of perception but a real problem
in the effective investigation of complaints; in its failure
to ensure lessons are learned from complaints. This response
examines the system and highlights key issues. £5.00 |
Buy £5 |
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| Prisoners, Deaths in Custody
and the Human Rights Act - September 2000 – INQUEST and the
Prisoners' Advice Service |
more...
This briefing
considers the implications for prisoners’ rights and
the examination of deaths in custody in view of the Human Rights
Act. £5.00 |
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| Parliamentary Ombudsman's report
into the death of Kenneth Severin - 1999 |
more...
Summary of the
Ombudsman report into the death of Kenneth Severin. Includes INQUEST briefing
and comment. |
Buy £4 |
| INQUEST's submission to the Prison
Inspectorate's thematic review on suicides in prison - 1998 |
more...
This submission
looks at the unacceptably high number of prison deaths and questions
whether suicide prevention and the healthcare of prisoners are given
any priority at all. |
Free download (PDF, 157B) |
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| Deaths of Black and Minority Ethnic People in Custody- INQUEST’S Submission to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry
- 1998 |
more...
This submission
examines the main issues around Stephen’s death and looks at
the investigative process, policy development and racially motivated
crimes. |
Free download  |
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| Inquests and Contentious Deaths - February 1997 |
more...
Record of a seminar
which relates to Northern Irish inquests and how the remit of the
system was narrowed. |
Buy £5 |
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| Lobbying From Below - Mick Ryan,
1996, UCL Press |
more...
Lobbying from Below conveys with graphic force the heavy toll of deaths of those
in state custody from 1970 to 1996. The book provides a powerful study of
INQUEST. |
| This item is currently unavailable from INQUEST |
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| Recent Developments in Inquest
Law |
| These journals
detail recent developments in inquest law and are a valuable source
of information to those in the legal profession and coroners. It has now been incorporated into Inquest Law magazine . |
Volume 4
1999 – Leslie Thomas and Stephen Simblet
Buy £5 |
Volume 3
1999 – Leslie Thomas
Buy £5 |
Volume 2
1998 – Leslie Thomas
Buy £5 |
Volume 1
1996 – Leslie Thomas
Buy £5 |
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