R (Al-Skeini and others) v Secretary of State for Defence, CA 2005
Judgment for the Claimants: Intervention on behalf of REDRESS in challenge to the refusal of the Defendant to apply Article 2/3 standards to investigation of civilian deaths at the hands of British soldiers in Iraq, invoking an extension of the jurisdiction of the ECHR and the HRA to those deaths in certain circumstances.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner v Christine Hurst, CA 2005
An important test case concerning retrospectivity under the Human Rights Act. We successfully argued that section 3 of the Human Rights Act (on interpreting Acts of Parliament to comply with Convention rights) should operate to ensure a Convention compliant inquest concerning systemic contributors to the death albeit that the death had occurred before the Act came into force. Re McKerr distinguished. The case itself concerns failures on the part of the Metropolitan Police and others to take steps to protect the deceased who was at risk from a third party.
R (Scholes) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, AC 2006
Unsuccessful challenge to the SSHD’s refusal to order a public inquiry into the death in custody of 16 year old of Joseph Scholes following his sentence of imprisonment and allocation into Prison Service accommodation. Consideration now being given to an application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal.
C v Metropolitan Police Commissioner, London Boroughs of Haringey, Brent & Ealing, and Central Middlesex & North Middlesex Hospitals NHS Trusts 2003
Substantial settlement achieved in respect of the death of child aged 8 years at the hands of her carers in circumstances indicating gross neglect of duty on the part of the Defendants.
Roger Sylvester, dec’d: R (Anderson and others) v HM Coroner HC 2004
Judgment for the Claimants: Representation of family in contesting police officers' challenge to inquest verdict of unlawful killing in relation to restraint related death of Roger Sylvester in custody of Met Police.
R v DPP ex parte Manning 2000
Successful challenge to refusal of new DPP to prosecute prison officers involved in unlawful killing of Alton Manning in custody – ground breaking judgement by the LCJ anticipating the impact of the Human Rights Act 1998.
Prison law
R (Smith) v Parole Board, HL 2005
Judgment in favour of Appellant: Case involving the right to an oral hearing for determinate prisoners recalled to custody under articles 5 and 6 of the Convention, and under right to fairness in common law.
R (Hammond) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, HL 2005
Judgment for applicant: Successful challenge to the provisions of the CJA 2003 which prevented lifers from having an oral hearing when their tariffs are being reset. Court achieved consistency with Article 6 by reading into the legislation the power to have an oral hearing.
R (Sim) v Parole Board, CA 2003
Judgment in favour of Claimant: Court of appeal confirmed applicability of article 5 to the recall of extended sentence prisoners and confirmed that to comply with the Convention the statutory test had to be read in accordance with section 3 of the Human Rights Act to require the Board to be positively satisfied as to the necessity of further detention.
R v Home Secretary ex parte Daly, HL 2001
Judgment for Applicant: Successful challenge to procedures for searching cells of prisoners - found to be incompatible with Article 6. Further clarified the correct scope of judicial review in cases involving human rights.
Police Misconduct
R (Coghlan and others) v Greater Manchester Police 2004
Judicial Review of the failure to prevent the retirement of a senior police officer notwithstanding judicial conclusion that he had lied on oath. The Court recognised the public interest in permitting the complaints process to proceed. An important test case with regard to the ambit of Chief Officer’s discretion in this area.
R (IH) v Metropolitan Police Commissioner 2003
Successful Article 2 challenge to refusal of the Metropolitan Police to disclose report of previous investigation into allegations of police collusion in this murder of a member of the public on behalf of his business partner in 1997.
R v Kidderminster Coroner and Alberta Cameron ex parte UKDS and Home Office 1998
Successful resistance to challenge mounted by the private company (UKDS) running HMP Blakenhurst and the Home Office against decision of Coroner to leave unlawful killing as a verdict for the inquest jury to consider in connection with the death of Alton Manning.
R v DPP and PCA ex parte Lapite 1997 R v DPP ex parte O’Brien R v DPP ex parte Treadaway
Successful challenges to refusal of DPP and PCA to prosecute or discipline police officers involved in unlawful killings of Oluwashijibomi Lapite and Richard O’Brien, and the torture of Derek Treadaway - the first and only instances of successful challenges to the exercise of the DPP’s prosecutorial discretion, resulting in a judicial inquiry and, at least in part, the decision of the then DPP to resign.
Immigration detention
R v SSHD ex parte Quaquah (1), (2), (3), AC 1998 - 2001
Three judicial reviews of the SSHD brought under Article 6 (the right to fair trial) amongst other grounds, finally leading to the SSHD granting the Claimant Exceptional Leave to Enter in order to remain in the UK to pursue litigation.
R (Nampewo) v SSHD, R (Sow) v SSHD, AC 2005
Two cases involving public law challenges to the detention of the Claimants who had been on bail and had then been detained under the Immigration Act. In the first case a successful application was made for habeas corpus and judicial review, in the second case the Claimant was released prior to a hearing. In both cases the Defendant accepted that the Claimants had been unlawfully detained and that damages for their detention should be assessed.
Criminal Appeals
R (Mills and Poole) v Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) 2000
Judgment for the Defendant: Challenge to refusal of CCRC to refer the convictions to Court of Appeal in this miscarriage of justice invoking the impact of ECHR considerations of Article 6 unfairness on domestic considerations of abuse of process and safety of convictions – judgment of the LCJ expressing doubts about the safety of the convictions resulted in reconsideration by the CCRC and the subsequent quashing of the convictions at the Court of Appeal in 2003.
