Inquest

‘Terrible thing’ happened to infant boy found wrapped in 1910 newspaper at Bishop Auckland property, says coronerA baby boy who was found with twine looped and knotted round his neck and wrapped in a 116-year-old newspaper was unlawfully killed, a coroner has concludedCrispin Oliver on Thursday said the child, known only as Baby Auckland, had been garrotted by an unknown person. Continue reading...

Government lawyers tell coroner disclosing intelligence would pose serious risk to national securityMinisters are seeking to block intelligence material from being heard at an inquest into the death of two men killed in the 2025 Manchester synagogue attack.Lawyers for Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, told a coroner on Thursday that disclosing the MI5 files would pose a serious risk to national security. Continue reading...

Coroner told BBC veteran was dazzled by headlights and sustained rib and sternum fractures in collision, which led to bronchopneumoniaThe broadcaster Jenni Murray died days after being involved in a car crash which happened when she was dazzled by headlights, a coroner has heard.Murray, 75, was best known as the voice of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, hosting the programme for three decades and becoming the longest-serving presenter in its history. Continue reading...

Academic was found unresponsive by family members, inquest told, as coroner adjourns proceedings to later dateA coroner has formally opened an inquest into the death of Jason Arday, who resigned as a professor at the University of Cambridge amid allegations of plagiarism.Arday, 41, died at his home in Battersea, south London on 14 August, nine days after his resignation. Family members watched the 10-minute hearing at London inner south coroner’s court via a video link. Continue reading...

Aalim Ahmed, five, fell from 15th-floor window at tower block family had asked to be moved out of, court hearsAn inquest into the death of a five-year-old boy who fell from a 15th-floor window has heard that more measures could have been taken to make it safer.Aalim Ahmed, who was autistic, died when he fell from a kitchen window at a residential block in Plaistow, east London. His father, Makail Ahmed, rushed from the top floor temporary social housing flat and discovered his body shortly before 6am on 16 May 2024. Continue reading...

Landmark high court ruling calls for fresh inquiry into Jools Sweeney’s death to allow for previously omitted social media evidenceThe inquest into the death of a 14-year-old boy, whose mother believes he died after a TikTok challenge gone wrong, is to be reopened in a landmark ruling by the high court.Jools Sweeney, a schoolboy from Gloucestershire, died in April 2022. His parents, Ellen Roome and Matt Sweeney, believed social media played a role in his death, pointing to the popularity of the “blackout challenge” online at the time. Continue reading...

Dr Delroy Hall said Cusack struggled to juggle two jobsCusack was found dead at her home in September 2023The former club chaplain at Sheffield United has told an inquest into Maddy Cusack’s death that she repeatedly asked him not to inform the club that she had been speaking to him.Dr Delroy Hall volunteered in the role at Sheffield United from 2017 until November 2023, about two months after Cusack’s death on 20 September 2023. Hall told the court on Wednesday that he thought players would come to him to discuss problems as a “last resort”. Cusack spoke to him multiple times in August 2023, including specifically on 23 August, and Hall said she asked him three or four times: “Please don’t tell anyone I’m talking to you.”In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Grace Riglar fights back tears giving evidenceCusack called Sheffield United omission a ‘personal attack’The girlfriend of the late Sheffield United player Maddy Cusack has told an inquest that Cusack’s former manager Jonathan Morgan called her a “psycho” and that her eating habits changed after he allegedly made a comment referencing her weight.Grace Riglar, who played for Sheffield United for one season alongside Cusack, fought back tears multiple times during an emotional and lengthy evidence session at Chesterfield coroner’s court on Tuesday. At one stage she had to take a break while being cross-examined by lawyers representing Sheffield United. Continue reading...

Jonathan Morgan claims he provided player welfareDoctor says Maddy feared mental health stigmaThe most significant cause of the deterioration of the late Sheffield United footballer Maddy Cusack’s mental health was the behaviour of Jonathan Morgan, the team’s manager at the time, her father, David Cusack, has told an inquest.During a tense exchange with David Cusack, Morgan, who is representing himself at the inquest, accused the player’s father of relying on hearsay to form his opinion of him. Continue reading...

Coroner tells freebirth inquest new material ‘of such significance’ any findings must be postponed so information can be analysedThe closing submissions in an inquest into the death of a woman who gave birth at home with no support from medically trained health workers has been delayed, after new evidence came to light following a forensic analysis of her mobile phone.Stacey Warnecke, a 30 year-old nutritionist, died on 29 September in Frankston hospital in Melbourne. Continue reading...

Coroner overturned initial police finding of suicide, saying their investigation was ‘deeply flawed, superficial and inadequate from the outset’•Warning: This article contains images of and references to Indigenous Australians who have diedFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe police investigation into the death of Indigenous teenager Mark Haines in northern New South Wales nearly four decades ago was hindered by racism and deeply flawed, a coroner has found.The body of the Gomeroi teenager was discovered on train tracks outside Tamworth on the morning of 16 January 1988. A stolen Holden Torana was found crashed nearby. Continue reading...

Emily Lal – paid $6,000 to provide freebirth support package to Stacey Warnecke – tells coroner her role was primarily to be a ‘supportive friend’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA birthkeeper hired by a woman who died after giving birth at home has told a coroner that she was “not there to make a birth safer”.Emily Lal gave evidence on Tuesday at the inquest into the death of 30-year-old Stacey Warnecke, who died on 29 September in Frankston hospital after giving birth at home with her husband and Lal present. Continue reading...

Medical investigations ongoing ‘to finalise the cause of death’ but police say they do not suspect foul playThe cause of the deaths of three sisters found in the sea off Brighton beach is yet to be ascertained but police say they do not suspect foul play at this stage.The bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, from Uxbridge, west London, were found earlier this month. Continue reading...

Directions hearing over deaths of Victoria police officers Neal Thompson and Vadim De Waart-Hottart told of new details of Porepunkah shootingFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe alleged sexual assault of a child has been revealed as the reason for a search warrant against Dezi Freeman that ended with him shooting dead two Victorian police officers.Fresh details into the August deaths of Det Leading Sen Const Neal Thompson, 59, and Sen Const Vadim De Waart-Hottart, 35, at Freeman’s home were detailed in a coroner’s court directions hearing on Monday morning. Continue reading...

Inquest hears Kyle Hudson, who died aged 22, withdrew from betting accounts multiple times but received more than 300 inducementsFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA young Melbourne man who took his own life after gambling more than $895,000 over four years was repeatedly drawn back to online betting platforms by targeted inducements, an inquest has heard.Coroner Paul Lawrie is investigating the circumstances and likely contributing factors to the death of Kyle Hudson, 22, including whether betting companies like Sportsbet, Entain and bet365 accurately assessed his risk of gambling-related harm. Continue reading...

Coroner will examine 95-year-old’s death and look at dementia training for aged care staff, police and ambulance officersGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThree years after police fatally Tasered an aged care resident, an inquest could save lives by improving training for first responders dealing with aggressive dementia patients.Then-senior constable Kristian James Samuel White fired his Taser at 95-year-old Clare Nowland after being called to Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma in southern New South Wales on 17 May 2023. Continue reading...

Coroner examines circumstances that led to 2021 death of Werribee man Kyle Hudson, who held multiple betting accountsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA Melbourne man gambled $895,733 through online betting platforms in the four years between his 18th birthday and the day he took his own life, an inquest has heard.Victorian coroner Paul Lawrie’s inquest into the circumstances of Kyle Hudson’s death on 6 July 2021 began on Monday, and will interrogate whether betting companies accurately assessed the risk of gambling-related harm in the years prior to Werribee man’s death. Continue reading...

Coroner says none of the five civilians killed in incident in Belfast during Troubles should have been shotBritish army soldiers “lost control” and used force that was “not reasonable” in the killing of five civilians in Northern Ireland in 1972, an inquest judge has ruled.Four of the victims – two teenagers, a father of six and a Catholic priest – posed no risk when they were shot in the Springhill and Westrock areas of west Belfast on 9 July 1972, Mr Justice Scoffield said on Thursday. Continue reading...

Alex Greenwich says inquest crucial to understand what failures led to Bikram Lama’s death and avoid similar deaths Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe New South Wales attorney-general, Michael Daley, has been urged to order an inquest into the death of Nepali rough sleeper Bikram Lama in Hyde Park.The death of Lama – who was also known as “the birdman” for his love of the area’s pigeons – has prompted widespread calls for change, after Guardian Australia revealed last week that the young migrant’s body lay unnoticed for up to a week in bushes near a busy thoroughfare into St James station. Continue reading...

Janet Fordham died in crash after travelling to see man who claimed he would help to recover money from earlier scamsA British woman who was scammed of up to £1m in a string of so-called “romance frauds” died in a road crash after travelling to west Africa to try to recoup some of her lost fortune, an inquest in Devon has heard.Janet Fordham, 69, was cheated of her life savings and her home over five years by fraudsters apparently based in the UK, Germany, the US and Ghana, the inquest in Exeter was told. Continue reading...

Mystery deepens over ‘Baby Auckland’ whose remains were found under floor of Bishop Auckland house in 2024A baby boy whose skeletal remains were found wrapped in newspaper dating back to 1910 and with twine around his neck may have been alive up to 300 years ago, an inquest has heard.The child was listed as “Baby Auckland” for an inquest into his death that was opened at the coroner’s court in Crook, County Durham, on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Child killer attacked at workshop at HMP Frankland with metal bar and died in hospitalAn inquest into the death of the Soham murderer, Ian Huntley, has heard he was struck over the head multiple times with a metal bar in prison.Huntley, 52, was an inmate in the maximum security prison HMP Frankland in Durham, where he was allegedly attacked in a workshop on 26 February. Continue reading...

Wife of Pawel Bukowski criticises care husband received over depression he suffered following failed procedureA man who took his own life was suffering from depression after a failed dental procedure in Turkey left him without any teeth, an inquest has heard.Pawel Bukowski, a 48-year-old forklift driver, had travelled to a private clinic in the country in January 2025 to have his teeth replaced after suffering from periodontal disease, a chronic bacterial infection that can erode the gums and lead to tooth and bone loss.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Luca Cella Walker asked chatbot for best way for someone to kill themself on railway line before his deathA 16-year-old boy killed himself after asking ChatGPT for the “most successful” way to take your own life, an inquest has been told.Luca Cella Walker, a private school pupil from Yateley, Hampshire, died on 4 May last year. Continue reading...

Clare Dupree, 48, who had severe mental illness, died after using a vape to start blaze at prison in GloucestershireThere were “missed opportunities” that could have prevented the death of a woman with severe mental illness from “sustained inhalation of smoke” after a fire in her prison cell, an inquest has found.Clare Dupree, 48, from Cardiff, died after she used a vape to start a fire at HMP Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire just after Christmas 2022. Continue reading...