Inquest (charity)

INQUEST

Founded	1981
Type	Charitable organization
Registration no.	1046650
Focus	Criminal Justice
Location	Finsbury Park, London
Area served	England and Wales
Key people	Deborah Coles, Director
Slogan	Working for truth, justice and accountability
Website	www.inquest.org.uk

Inquest, sometimes styled INQUEST, is a charity concerned with deaths in custody or detention in England and Wales, founded in 1981. It offers specialist advice and support to bereaved families and others.^[1][2]

Inquest today

Inquest provides specialist advice and support for bereaved people and for community and voluntary sector groups. Its advice service is restricted to those affected by deaths in custody or detention or "involving state failures", but it also publishes The Inquest Handbook: a guide for bereaved families, friends and their advisors, for anyone dealing with an inquest, freely available online and also in print (ISBN 978 0 946858 25 5).^[3]

The Chair of the Trustees, as of June 2016, is solicitor Daniel Machover,^[4] The poet Benjamin Zephaniah is the charity's patron;^[5] his cousin Mikey Powell died in 2003 after being detained by police, for which West Midlands Police issued an apology in 2013.^[6]

Inquest's logo includes the slogan "Working for truth, justice and accountability" and an image of a keyhole.^[7]

Inquest is a registered charity, number 1046650.^[7]

History

Inquest was founded in 1981 at a time of dissatisfaction with procedures for dealing with deaths in custody and at the hands of the police, and the failure of the official response to these deaths, in particular the deaths of Jimmy Kelly and Blair Peach.^[8][7] Both men died after being assaulted by police officers, and both of the inquests set up following their deaths denied their families access to relevant information.^[9][10][11]

Following a sustained campaign by Inquest, Peach's family and supporters the internal investigation of the Metropolitan Police (known as the Cass report) was published. This report found that Blair Peach had been killed by a police officer, and that other officers had lied in order to prevent this being made public.^[12][13]

The organisation has successfully campaigned for reforms including: the establishment of independent investigations following deaths in police custody in 2004, and the 2007 Corporate Manslaughter Act, which allows for companies and organisations to be held legally responsible for certain deaths.^[14]

In 2009 Inquest won the Longford Prize, an annual award in the field of social or penal reform. The judges commended Inquest's "remarkable perseverance, personal commitment and courage in an area too often under-investigated by the public authorities, and especially for its support for the families of those who have taken their own lives while in the care of the state".^[15]

In 2015 it was announced that Inquest's director Deborah Coles would be a special advisor to Dame Elish Angiolini who was chairing the Independent Review Into Deaths and Serious Incidents in Police Custody, and Inquest would be involved in enabling bereaved families to give evidence to the enquiry.^[16]

In 2016 Inquest used Freedom of Information requests to compile a report finding that at least nine young people had died since 2010 while in-patients in mental health units, and called for such deaths to be statutorily notified and investigated.^[17]

Notable cases

Inquest have supported bereaved families, and assisted lawyers and supporters following deaths in custody and detention, notable cases include:

• Oluwashijibomi Lapite (died 1994)^[18]
• Christopher Alder (died 1998)^[19]
• Roger Sylvester (died 1999)^[20]
• Jean Charles De Menezes (died 2005)^[21]
• Ian Tomlinson (died 2009)^[22]

Inquest publications

• Deaths in mental health detention: An investigation framework fit for purpose?, 2015^[23]
• Stolen Lives and Missed opportunities: The deaths of young adults and children in prison, 2015^[24]
• Preventing the deaths of women in prison, 2013^[25]
• Fatally Flawed, 2013^[26]
• Learning from Death in Custody Inquests: A New Framework for Action and Accountability, 2012^[27]
• The Inquest Handbook: A guide for bereaved families, their friends and advisors, 2011 ISBN 978 0 946858 25 5^[28]
• Dying on the Inside - Examining women's deaths in prison, 2008 ISBN 9780946858224^[29]
• Unlocking the Truth: Families' Experience of the Investigation of Deaths in Custody, 2007 ISBN 9780946858217^[30]
• In the Care of the State? – Child deaths in penal custody in England & Wales, 2006 ISBN 0946858195^[31]
• Prisoners: Deaths in Custody and the Human Rights Act, 2000 ISBN 0946858101
• Death & Disorder - Three case studies of public order and policing in London, 1986^[32]

Further reading

• David Renton, Who killed Blair Peach?, Defend the Right to Protest and the NUT, 2014.
• Barry Goldson, Vulnerable inside: Children in Secure and Penal Settings, The Children's Society, 2003.
• Mick Ryan, Lobbying From Below: Inquest in Defence of Civil Liberties, Routledge, 1996.

See also

• UK deaths in custody

References

External links

• Official website
• Charity Commission. Inquest Charitable Trust, registered charity no. 1046650.