AC-2024-LON-002499 - [2025] EWHC 2131 (Admin)

This is a renewed application for permission to proceed in an application for judicial review. Permission was refused by Turner J on 8 May 2025. The core challenge is to the coroner’s ruling dated 25 April 2024 that article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights is not engaged.

The claimant is the sister of Mahamoud Ali (“M”) who was born on 4 June 1980 and died on 26 August 2020. He went into cardiac arrest on 21 August 2020 in Lea Ward at Mile End Hospital, where he was an involuntary inpatient having been sectioned under section 2 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (“MHA 1983”). The claimant is represented by Ms Maragh of counsel.

The defendant is HM Assistant Coroner for Inner North London. The first interested party is the East London NHS Foundation Trust (“the Trust”). The second interested party is the Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. The defendant’s stance in the application is neutral as confirmed in her acknowledgement of service and in a subsequent confirmatory note. Her stance accords with that envisaged by Brooke LJ in R (Davies) v HM Deputy Coroner for Birmingham [2004] EWCA Civ 207, at paras 47-49. The interested persons indicated that they did not intend to attend nor make submissions, and they did not.

Given the importance of the case to those involved and the seriousness of the issues, I reserved judgment on permission for a short time to reflect on the submissions and review all the materials, rather than giving an ex tempore judgment in a busy list.