Frost v HM Coroner for West Yorkshire (Eastern District) [2019] EWHC 1100 (Admin)
Where new evidence becomes available which renders an inquest’s factual basis inaccurate the interests of justice remain the touchstone for applications under section 13: even the passage of over half a century does not remove the necessity and desirability of ordering a fresh inquest.
Here a bereaved brother successfully applied to quash the decision of the Inquest held in 1966 (under the 1926 Act), which had found that Ian Spencer had murdered his 14 year old sister, Elsie Frost.
Spencer had been committed for trial, but the Crown had offered no evidence against him. A new investigation initiated in 2015 had implicated another man, Peter Pickering, who was already serving a life sentence for manslaughter of a 14 year old in 1972. However, Pickering died in 2018 before a charging decision could be made. The police twice publicly stated they believed he had killed Elsie.
The Coroner questioned the value of a fresh Inquest both in terms of the public interest and the interests of the families, and so left it to the bereaved family to go through the process of seeking a fiat and making an application for a fresh inquest. The Divisional Court clearly did not share the Coroner’s concerns. Indeed, the judgment provides a handy ‘nutshells’ review of the issues relevant to the passage of time in an application under section 13, including the interests of the bereaved, of properly exploring deaths and of setting the record straight. The issue of whether 53 years should render the further investigation into the tragic case unnecessary did not trouble the court,
“Public interest has not been significantly vitiated by the lapse of time”