| Coroner — Inquest — Verdict — Deceased killed by state agents prior to 2002 — Verdict of unlawful killing not available in domestic legislation — Whether inquest meeting duty to investigate deaths — Coroners Act (Northern Ireland)1959, s 31(1) — Human Rights Act 1998, s 3, Sch 1, Pt 1, art 2 — Coroners (Practice and Procedure) Rules (Northern Ireland) 1963 (SR & O 1963/199), rr 15, 16 (as amended by (Practice and Procedure) (Amendment) Rules (Northern Ireland) 1980 (SI 1980/444), Sch
Coroner — Inquest — Duty to hold inquest — Deceased killed by state agents in 1990 — Police investigating death withholding information from coroner — Whether continuing obligation on police to provide all relevant information — Coroners Act (Northern Ireland)1959, s 8
Jordan v Lord Chancellor and another; McCaughey v Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland:[2007] UKHL 14
HL(E): Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood and Lord Mance: 28 March
Since the Human Rights Act 1998 did not apply retrospectively, deaths which occurred before that Act came into force would be investigated in inquests conducted under the prior domestic coronial law; accordingly the jury, although not prohibited from making factual findings directly relevant to the cause of death which might point to criminal, could not return a verdict of unlawful killing.
S 8 of the 1959 Act imposed on the police a continuing duty to supply to the coroner any relevant information they had at the time of notifying him of the death and any further information they subsequently obtained.
The House of Lords so stated (1) in the first appeal (Baroness Hale and Lord Mance dissenting in part), when dismissing, on different grounds, Hugh Jordan’s appeal from the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland [2005] NI 144 which dismissed his appeal from Kerr J who, on 29 January and 8 March 2002 refused his applications for judicial review of decisions of the Lord Chancellor, failing to ensure compliance of the inquest system in Northern Ireland with art 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and of the Coroner for Greater Belfast to apply existing provisions to the resumed inquest into the death of Mr Jordan’s son on 25 November 1992; and
(2) in the second appeal when allowing in part Owen McCaughey’s appeal (Baroness Hale and Lord Mance dissenting in part), from the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland [2005] NI 344 which on 14 January 2005 allowed an appeal by the Chief Constable from Weatherup J who, on 20 January 2005, granted Mr McCaughey’s application for judicial review of the Chief Constable’s refusal to furnish to the coroner conducting an inquest into the death of the claimant’s son certain documents obtained in the course of their investigation.
LORD BINGHAM said, with regard to the first appeal, that as the 1998 Act did not have retrospective effect it did not apply to a death which occurred before it came into force in October 2000 or to any investigation into such a death; accordingly, s 3 did not apply to the interpretation of s 31(1) of the 1959 Act and rr 15 and 16 of the 1963 Rules, as amended. The domestic coronial law prior to the coming into force of the 1998 Act continued to apply to inquests into deaths which occurred before that date. There was no prohibition on the jury finding facts directly relevant to the cause of death which might point to the existence of criminal liability; where their findings indicated the commission of a crime, or the coroner considered that an offence might of been committed, he would be obliged to report that matter to the relevant prosecuting authority. However under the 1959 Act and the 1963 Rules, as amended, the jury might not return a verdict of unlawful killing or express any opinion on a question of criminal or civil liability.
With regard to the second appeal, he said that, having regard to the public interest in a full and effective investigation, s 8 of the 1959 Act imposed on the police a continuing duty to supply to the coroner such information as they had at the time of notifying him of the death or were thereafter able to obtain.
LORD RODGER and LORD BROWN agreed and BARONESS HALE and LORD MANCE delivered opinions dissenting in part on each appeal.
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Appearances: Nicholas Blake QC and Karen Quinlivan (Madden & Finucane, Belfast) for the claimant in each appeal; Bernard McCloskey QC, Philip Sales QC and Turlough Montague QC (Treasury Solicitor and Crown Solicitor, Belfast) for the Lord Chancellor and the coroner in the first appeal; Bernard McCloskey QC and Paul Maguire QC (Crown Solicitor, Belfast) for the chief constable in the second appeal.
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