The Coroner is appointed by the Ministry of Justice on advice from the Local Authority (council) and the Coroners Society.
The Coroner is a servant of the Crown and receives guidance from the Chief Coroner and the Coroner’s Society on good practice and changes to practice.
The main purpose of the Coroner is to determine:
The first three are fairly straight forward – the last, how the person died, often causes issues for families.
Coroners employ Coroners Officers to investigate and recommend to the Coroner.
There are a number of Coroners offices in a Coroners Jurisdiction. They are usually ex -police employees. In some areas they are Police employees and on occasions are serving police officers.
They are the conduit between the family and the Coroner. The Coroner will not speak directly to families.
The Coroners Officers are often inundated by telephone calls from different members of the family.
This causes a delay in progressing the case as they are engaged in answering calls from different individuals for the same case.
It is advisable for families to appoint a Single Point of Contact for all dealings with Coroners Officers – this person should be well briefed in respect of the case including the medical history of the deceased.
Any medically qualified person who was responsible for the medical care of the deceased can give a cause of death.
Usually this is the GP
If the GP hasn’t seen the deceased for a period of time there may be reluctance to do this.
However under new guidance this is not a restriction, if the deceased was ill and under treatment then the GP can give a cause of death based on a balance of probability and known history – determining a cause of death does not need to be beyond all reasonable doubt.
In these circumstances the Coroner has no choice but to opt for a post mortem in order to determine what the cause of death was.
No. The family can make representations.
There are now PM Imaging facilities available across England.
Centres are open in Sheffield and Bradford.
Imaging procedures are also carried out in Manchester, Leicestershire, Oxford and some London Boroughs
Firstly the Coroner has got to agree that the case is suitable.
The Chief Coroner has issued guidance which instructs Coroners on how to deal with these matters.
If the Coroner agrees then the Coroners Officer will be instructed to make arrangements through service providers such as Igene to carry out this procedure.
If you want a virtual autopsy the contact the Saad Foundation and we can help.
If a cause of death is identified and the Coroner is satisfied then there will be no further investigation and the body will be released to the family.
If a cause of death isn’t identified then the Coroner will revert to an intrusive post mortem.
The family can still make representation and ask for the findings of the virtual autopsy to be taken into consideration. In this way the intrusive post mortem can be minimised. For example if the imaging procedure doesn’t find any issues in the brain/head then there is no reason why the intrusive post mortem needs to include an exploration of the head.
In these circumstances the Coroner will usually hold an inquest at a later date.
In the meantime the body will be released to the family – as long as the circumstances are not suspicious or criminal.
The inquest is a procedure where the Coroner sits in a court environment listening to all the evidence from experts.
At the end of this the Coroner determines the most likely cause of death – this is based on a balance of probabilities.
This varies from provider to provider.
Services in Manchester cost £750
Igene charge £450 but only if a cause of death is identified. Otherwise there is no cost.
The cost always lies with the family.
This is agreed prior to the procedure.
Imaging does work. There is a success rate of over 85%.
The procedure is always developing and improving.
This is based on evidential research carried out by Pathologists and radiologists – funded by the Department of Health over the past 10years.
Manchester developed this procedure through MRI scanning 20years ago.
Igene are now progressing the availability of these services by investing millions across the UK. Eventually they will have 18 imaging centres open providing services to all communities.
If this didn’t work then a private sector company wouldn’t be investing millions where the business case wasn’t good!
If you want to read more on the evidence base then visit our Information for Professionals section.
Contact any of the below organisations for advice:
Saad Foundation (Ramzan Mohayuddin)
Bolton Council of mosques (Mohammad Mogera)
Igene – Medico Legal Centre, Sheffield.
Links
Bolton Council of Mosques WESITE
Coroners Society WEBSITE
Oxford MIA Family information
Oxford MIA protocol
Family testimony
Muslim Death Guide
Jewish Death Guide
