Inquests & Public Inquiries
Peter has considerable experience in dealing with inquests. This includes representing interested persons into deaths caused by deliberate criminal acts, deaths in prisons, deaths in healthcare settings, and other high profile cases involving workplace accidents or deaths in the community.
He has acted at inquests for families of the bereaved, local authorities, health authorities, housing providers, and individual professional workers.
The experience he gained from previously working as a clinical negligence solicitor, and as a legal adviser to a leading teaching trade union, has equipped him with sensitive client care skills and invaluable insight into workplace environments and the working lives of busy professionals.
He has also acted as counsel on two major independent inquiries into homicides committed by patients with mental health problems.
Notable Recent Cases:
2023
Inquest touching the death of CB
Representing emergency department nurse in high-profile inquest into the death of a young man suffering from cardiogenic shock. (4-week hearing. Case ongoing)
Inquest touching death of JC
Representing family in high-profile inquest into death of man who suffered a cardiac arrest after being physically restrained in a pub. The case had been adjourned part way through the proceedings after the coroner invited the police to re-open a criminal investigation following Peter’s cross-examination of the forensic pathologist and one of the men involved in the restraint. (2-week hearing)
Inquest touching death of LW
Representing sheltered housing company in inquest into the death of a man with mental health and learning difficulties who died as a result of a ruptured oesophagus after a period of weight loss and vomiting. My client had housed the deceased in the immediate period prior to his death.
2022
Inquest touching the death of DN
Representing a hospital trust in an inquest in the death of man who died from a heroin overdose following his discharge into the community from a mental health unit run by my client.
Inquest touching the death of KF and others
Representing GP at in an inquest into the deaths of four people in circumstances in which a father shot and killed his partner and their children before shooting himself. My client participated in the firearms application process for the gun involved.
Inquest touching the death of HW
Representing a GP at an inquest into the death of a 12-year-old boy who was killed after a man deliberately drove his car into a group of school children. My client had conducted a Mental Health Act assessment on the man responsible.
Inquest touching the death of LB
Representing a doctor in an inquest into the death in of a woman at HMP Peterborough who died following a period of alcohol and drug withdrawal. My client had conducted an examination of the deceased at Peterborough Crown Court.