Birmingham coroner hits out at Jack Straw over 'secret' inquests
Oct 30 2009 by Kat Keogh, Birmingham Post
A Birmingham coroner has branded Government plans to introduce secret inquests into controversial deaths a “disgrace”, saying it was the “end of democracy”.
Birmingham and Solihull Coroner Aidan Cotter slammed proposals to ban the press, public and bereaved families from certain investigations into deaths under the Coroners and Justice Bill.
If made law, the measures would hand the Government powers to suspend an inquest and stage a ‘secret inquiry’ instead.
Civil liberties groups fear that inquests like that of Jean Charles De Menezes, shot dead on the London Undergroundby police when mistaken for a terrorist, and those involving the deaths of British soldiers could become secret hearings in the future.
In an interview with the Birmingham Post, Mr Cotter said the measures could render the role of a coroner to a large extent “irrelevant”.
But Justice Secretary Jack Straw hit back at Mr Cotter’s claims, stating: “I have no more interest in secret justice than he does”.
Mr Cotter said: “The issue keeps coming back and it needs to be fought all the way.
“It is disgraceful that the Government are still trying to make inquests secret. The purpose of an inquest is to make sure the public know how somebody died. Once you have the Government saying, even in just one case, ‘no, the public are not to know why’, then as far as I am concerned it is the end of democracy.
“Twice the Government have said they would not do this and now, again, they are slipping it in.
“I appreciate there are cases where for the security of this country you cannot allow all the evidence that has been given but the law already provides what they call public interest immunity.”
Jack Straw had abandoned proposals to hold inquests in private earlier this year following opposition from MPs and civil liberties groups.
But clauses buried in the Coroners and Justice Bill still allow the Lord Chancellor, currently Mr Straw, discretion to order a secret inquiry in place of a public inquest.
In addition to excluding families, legal representatives and the public, a minister could also restrict publication of certain documents and withhold parts of the final report.
Mr Cotter added that the measures would deny families “closure”.
He said: “If you talk to ordinary people who have been to an inquest they all talk about closure.
“Unless you know what happened you can’t get closure. If you know the truth, however bad it is, you can accept it.
“What you can’t accept is not knowing what happened.”
Speaking to the Birmingham Post before addressing a conference at Aston Business School yesterday, Mr Straw said the issue was a “very difficult one”.
He said: “I haven’t seen directly what the Birmingham Coroner has said but I have no more interest in secret justice than he does.
“There were never going to be secret inquests – it’s about how you are able to deduce key evidence which maybe safe from intercept while maintaining its secrecy and that’s in the interest of everybody if it’s about intelligence or serious crime – that’s the difficult balance here.”
Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil liberties group Liberty, said: “After 12 years of lectures about ‘re-balancing justice’ towards victims, it is particularly distasteful to see the same pious politicians seeking to exclude grieving families from open inquests.”
