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Inquests, inquiries and indictments: the official reception of death by disaster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Celia Wells
Celia Wells*
Affiliation:
Cardiff Law School
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Extract

In this essay I consider the reception, perception and construction of deaths by disaster. Catastrophies such as those at Aberfan, Zeebrugge and Hillsborough present a challenge to legal and political systems. They prompt immediate and long-term responses. Some of these are concerned with establishing the cause, some with preventing their recurrence and others with blame allocation. There have been public and not so public inquiries into them. In some cases there have been criminal prosecutions with suggestions of scapegoating, but all these disasters have one thing in common. They have been the subject of an inquest. To be more precise, each death has been the subject of an inquest, as are the 18,000 deaths from external causes, injuries or poisoning, which occur every year. Here I focus in particular on the role of the coroner's inquest and its relationship with other forms of public investigation in shaping public perceptions of disasters.

Type
Research Article
Information
Legal Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , March 1991 , pp. 71 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 1991

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References

1. See the Appendix for further details and a chronology of the disasters which have been analysed for this essay.

2. The trial of P & O and seven employees for manslaughter following Zeebrugge which opened in September 1990, collapsed in October 1990 with a judicial direction to acquit. The train driver who went through a red light at Purley in 1989 killing five pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment (of which 12 were suspended), Guardian, 4 September 1990.

3. Or, in the case of Lockerbie, the Scottish equivalent, a Fatal Accident Inquiry, which opened 1 October 1990.

4. Most of which are accidental. British Medical Association, Living with Risk (John Wiley and Sons, 1987, re-issued by Penguin, 1990) p 47 Google ScholarPubMed, based on information from the OPCS, Mortality Statistics, Causes IN4 (HMSO, 1985).

5. This is discussed at greater length in Lacey, Nicola, Wells, Celia and Meure, Dirk, Reconstructing Criminal Law (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1990)Google Scholar chapter 5.

6. See Swigert, V. and Farrell, R., Murder, Inequality and the Law (Lexington, 1976)Google Scholar and W. Felstiner et al, ‘The Emergence and Transformation of Disputes: Naming, Blaming, Claiming…’ (1980-1) 15 Law and Society Review 632.

7. The office was established in 1194, almost coinciding with the replacement of trial by ordeal by trial by jury in 1215, see Green, T. A., Verdict According to Conference (University of Chicago Press, 1985) p 51 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See generally on the early years, Hunnisett, R. F., The Medieval Coroner (Cambridge University Press, 1961)Google Scholar and for a general history, McKeogh, J., ‘Origins of the Coronial Jurisdiction’ (1983) 6 University of New South Wales Law Journal 191 Google Scholar.

8. Hunnisett, op cit, n 7, chapter 1. The coroner at this time could be called upon to perform almost any duties, including that of full-time official to present Crown pleas.

9. Ibid, p 190.

10. Hunnisett notes the decrease in the number of appeals, the abolition of the murdrum fine, the cessation of the general eyre (a periodical circuit of justices which could hear all manner of pleas) and the rise of the local justices of the peace.

11. Warwick Inquest Group, ‘The Inquest as a Theatre for Police Tragedy: The Davey Case’ (1985) 12 Jnl of Law and SOC 35, 38 Google Scholar.

12. Now Coroners Act 1988, s 19. Various other statutes provide for a mandatory inquest following deaths in particular circumstances.

13. Of a total of 581,203 deaths in 1986, 141,301 were certified by a coroner, OPCS, Mortally Statistics, 1986 Series DH1 no 18 (HMSO, 1989) Table 9.

14. Ibid.

15. Coroners (Amendment) Act 1926, ss 20 and 13(2)(a) as amended by Criminal Law Act 1977, s 56. The provisions for juries are now to be found in Coroners Act 1988, s 8. See also n 29 below.

16. The term is used here to include murder, manslaughter, infanticide, causing death by reckless driving or aiding and abetting suicide.

17. Coroners Act 1988, s 16. The section also requires an adjournment where the DPP informs the coroner that a person has been charged on indictment with an oFFence committed in circumstances connected with the death of the deceased.

18. And the DPP can so request in relation to offences in ‘circumstances connected’ with the deceased's death. Coroners Rules 1984, Rules 26 and 27.

19. Coroners Act 1988, s 16(7)(a). Section 16(3) allows the coroner to resume an adjourned inquest ‘if in his opinion there is sufficient cause to do so’.

20. As seemed to happen in relation to the Clapham rail accident. The DPP announced in May 1990 that there was insufficient evidence for criminal prosecution but the inquest jury returned verdicts of unlawful killing at the inquest in September.

21. Op cit, n 11, p 37.

22. Hall, et al, Policing the Crisis, Mugging, the State and Law and Order (MacMillan, 1978) p 58 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23. Op cit, n 11, p37.

24. Of the disasters discussed here, only the statutory inquiry into the Marchioness collision has not yet been made public.

25. In the Manchester Airport disaster the fire was on 22 August 1985, the inquest returned verdicts of accidental death on 22 September 1986 and the AAIB published an Interim Report in July 1987 and a Final Report on 12 March 1989.

26. Under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921 which bestows High Court powers to summon witnesses, send for documents etc. Report of the Tribunal into the Disaster at Aberfan (HC Paper No 553, 1967).

27. Hansard, vol 751, 5th series, cols 1916/17. The Minister quoted the Tribunal of Inquiry, para 207.

28. Times, 29 September 1967.

29. Brodrick in 1971 gave a figure of 31% for 1969, Report of the Committee on Death Certijcation and Coroners (Cmnd 4810) Table N, p 202.

30. They have already been abolished in Scotland. The Brodrick Report recommended that the coroner should in all cases have a discretion whether to order a jury or not, above, n29, para 16.49, 1971.

31. Ibid, para 16.49. The report recommended that the mandatory provisions be abolished and the decision whether to summon a jury should be entirely a matter for the coroner.

32. Now Coroners Act 1988, s 8(1). The Criminal Law Act 1977 abolished the requirement for a jury in relation to homicide and road accidents which had been retained by Coroners (Amendment) Act 1926, s 13(2)(a) and (d).

33. Or other place or circumstances as require an inquest under any Act, Coroners Act 1988, s 8(3)(a).

34. Coroners Act 1988, s 8(3) (b). This was originally added by s 62 of the Administration of Justice Act 1982.

35. Coroners Act 1988, s 8(3)(c).

36. Coroners Act 1988, s 8(3)(d).

37. R v Hammersmith Coroner, ex p Peach [1980] QB 211, [1980] 2 All ER 7.

38. Coroners Juries Act, 1983, ss 1-3, now 1988 Act, s 9.

39. See Celia Wells, ‘The Decline and Rise of English Murder: Corporate Crime and Individual Responsibility’ (1988) Criminal Law Review 788.

40. Green, op cit, n 7.

41. Coroners Rules 1984, Sch 4, Form 22, note 4 (SI 1984/552).

42. Ie, beyond reasonable doubt that the deaths were caused by another's gross negligence. R v West London Coroner, ex p Gray [1987] 2 WLR 1020.

43. Above, n 29. See now Coroners Rules 1984, R 36(2). Coroners are entitled to make recommendations in writing to relevant authorities if thought necessary to prevent the recurrence of fatalities, R 43.

44. Times, 30 July 1985. Somr of these were more Far-reaching than those of the Popplewell Inquiry, Final Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Crowd Safely and Control at Sports Grounds (Cmnd 9710) 1986.

45. R v Shrewsbury Coroner's Court, exp British Parachute Association (1988) I52 J P 123.

46. 9 October 1987, 22 July 1988 and 13 September 1990 respectively.

47. In the King's Cross inquest the coroner backed up his direction that verdicts of unlawful killing were not open to thr. jury by invoking the advice of the Lord Chief Justice, Guardian, 12 October 1988.

48. As revealed in the company's manslaughter trial these requests were greeted with derision by its directors, Guardian, 15 September 1990.

49. The inquest into the deaths in the Aberfan disaster seems to conform to this type. The hearing lasted four minutes because the coroner directed that the conclusion of the Tribunal of Inquiry, above, n 26, amounted to a finding of accidental death, Times, 29 September 1967.

50. Op cit, n 11, p 37. The same could be said of criminal trials themselves.

51. Guardian, 17 August 1990. The Marchioness Action Group unsuccessfully sought leave to challenge the DPP's decision not to pursue manslaughter charges, Guardian, 30 October 1990.

54. See above, n 25.

53. Times, 15 April 1975.

54. The Inquiry opened on 1 October 1990 and was completed in March 1991.

55. Times, 9 October 1987.

56. Three people died on 19 October 1987. The inquest was held on 22July 1988, the DPP decided in September 1989 not to prosecute but the Department of Transport's inquiry did not report until 27 May 1990, Department of Transport, Report on the Collapse of the Glanrhyd Bridge on 19 October 2987 (HMSO, 1990).

57. Guardian, 12 October 1988, and see above, n 47.

58. M. V. Herald of Free Enterprise, Report of the Court, No 8074 (Dept of Transport, 1987).

59. Guardian, 12 October 1988.

60. Investigation into the King's Cross Underground Fire; (Cm 499, 1988, HMSO).

61. Investigation into the Clapham Junction Railway Accident (Cm 820, November 1989) (both this and King's Cross, were statutory inquiries under the Regulation of Railways Act 1871, s 7).

62. Guardian, 13 September 1990.

63. See above, n 47.

64. Independent, 19 May 1990. The dossier of evidence was prepared for the DPP by the British Transport Police. Charges under the Health and Safety Act 1974 of failure to ensure the safety of passengers and employees are being brought. Independent, 21 November 1990.

65. The coroner's original ruling that corporate manslaughter was not an offence which existed at law was successfully challenged in R v H. M. Coroners Court for East Kent, ex p Spooner (1989) 88 Cr App Rep 10.

66. See above, no 17.

67. Guardian, 31 August 1990. In fact the inquest was again adjourned pending this decision, on 18 April 1990, and was finally resumed in November 1990. Both the Marchioness and the Hillsborough Action Groups have applied for leave to bring actions for judicial review of the DPP's decision, see above, n 51 and David Bergman, ‘Recklessness in the Boardroom’ (1990) 140 NLJ 1496.

68. See Bergman, Ibid. It would he open to the Attorney General to use his power under the Criminal Justice Act 1972, s 36 to refer the question of law on which the acquittals were based to the Court of Appeal.

69. See generally Cook, Judith, An Accident Uhiling To Happen (Unwin, 1989)Google Scholar and see Guardian, 16 November 1988.

70. Comparison here can be made with the official action taken against the driver in the Purley rail crash in March 1989. He confessed immediately to having caused the accident by his failure to stop at a red signal, and pleaded guilty to manslaughter, see n 2.

71. One complaint about the King's Cross inquest was that it lasted only one week, compared with a month for Zeebrugge and four minutes for Aberfan, see above, n 49.

72. The Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949 provided for legal aid to inquests hut this has never been implemented. See Justice, , Coroners Courts in England and Wales (1986) p 15 Google Scholar.

73. Times, 4 May 1988, and Report, above, n 60, para 21.6.

74. John Prescott, shadow Transport Secretary, criticised both the Fennell Inquiry into King's Cross and the Hidden Inquiry into Clapham because wider questions of public subsidy were omitted, see, eg Hansard, vol 143, 6th series, col 647, but see n 77.

75. Times, 23 April 1988.

76. Times, 18 June 1988 and Fennell Report, above n 60, para 19.6.

77. In a Parliamentary question about the terms of reference for the Fennell Inquiry, David Mitchell replied for the government that reference should be made to section 7I Hansard, vol 124, 6th series, 776w.

78. Although the investigation has the powers of a summary court. See generally, Wade, H., Administrative Law (6th edn, 1988) p 999 Google Scholar and Wraith, and Lamb, , Public Inquiries us an Instrument of Government (1971) pp 146–154 Google Scholar.

79. Above, n 17.

80. Cp the King's Cross inquest, above n 47.

81. Fennell Report, above, n 60. para 19.40. The Lord Advocate already has an equivalent discretion in Scotland.

82. Coroners still, for historical reasons, deal with treasure trove.

83. See, for example, R v Birmingham and Solihull Coroner, ex p Secretary of State for the Home Department (1990) Independent, 2 August, QBD, where a verdict of lack of care following a suicide in prison was quashed. The second inquest returned the same verdict, Guardian, 25 October 1990.