I spent days reporting on an inquest and challenged a ‘superfluous’ court order

Officers didn’t help driver who died after 100mph chase, inquest hears

Just two months after joining the EssexLive team I attended an inquest opening at Essex Coroner’s Court touching upon the death of Abdul Kadir Abdulla. The 20-year-old man died in a car crash on Wednesday, October 17, 2018 following a police chase through Brentwood. There were no restrictions on media reporting at the time, so we published the story illustrated by photographs we had from the scene. Due to the nature of the case, the hearing was adjourned in order for the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to carry out a full investigation. The independent body found no indication that officers had breached professional standards. However, management action was deemed appropriate to improve their provision of first aid.

On March 9, 2020 the full inquest into Abdul’s death began at Essex Coroner’s Court, heard by area coroner Tina Harrington. While my report was covered by absolute privilege, there were other legal and ethical, considerations I had to take into account.

The coroner ruled, in open court, that the name or any other matter of two police officers due to give evidence would be withheld from the public. This enabled the court to impose a section 11 order under the Contempt of Court Act 1981. As a result, throughout the inquest the officers were referred to as K8 and Y6. To prevent jigsaw identification, I decided against including the gender of the officers. I was also mindful that our photographs taken at the scene could breach the order, so I cropped and censored them accordingly. A BBC reporter was also covering the inquest, so we had a discussion to ensure the identity of the two officers remained protected in our reports.

Challenging the section 11 order:

After liaising with my editor, he advised me to obtain a sealed copy of the court order along with a reason for its use, both of which the court was unwilling to accommodate. I informed my editor of this so that he could keep our legal team updated. It seemed to us that the order was superfluous.

Protecting the confidentiality of jury deliberations:

When a coroner believes a death has occurred within police custody or from an action of a police officer in the execution of their duty, an inquest must be held with a jury. While the case was active I didn’t publish anything said in the jury’s absence to avoid causing a substantial risk of serious prejudice or impediment to the proceedings. The confidentiality of jurors deliberations are also protected by law. To ensure that I was not in breach of this I made no communications with any jurors, before, during or after the hearing.

Ethical considerations:

I approached one of Abdul’s family with “sympathy and discretion” as stated in clause four of the Editors’ Code of Practice. A family member provided me with a photograph of Abdul and we exchanged contact details, as they agreed to a follow-up interview. Unfortunately, while they initially seemed keen on the idea of running a tribute piece, they later decided against it.

Following the inquest, I contacted the IOPC to obtain their investigation report, which I had planned to combine with the family tributes for a follow-up piece. However, without tributes from the family the IOPC report alone was not enough to justify a further story.

How well the inquest coverage did for our site:

While the inquest opening generated just over 5,000 page views, my coverage of the full inquest generated more than 15,000 page views.

Essex Police officers didn’t help driver who died after 100mph Brentwood chase, inquest hears

This article had 11,706 page views and an average engagement time of one minute 31 seconds. It also performed well on Facebook reaching over 38,000 people with over 8,000 engagements.

Driver who died after crash during high-speed police chase through Brentwood was ‘found with drugs in his hand’

The second article covering the three-day inquest received 3,802 page views with an average engagement time of 49 seconds. On Facebook it reached 2,802 people and had 4,196 engagements.

What it looked like in print:

The full coverage of the inquest, including the conclusion of ‘misadventure’, filled a double page spread in the Brentwood Gazette. This demonstrates how my work reached different audiences through different mediums.