Page 82 - When Things Go Wrong

both important and therapeutic for the bereaved”. 222 At the Grenfell Family
Consultation Day: “families appreciated the pen portrait and commemorations
and highlighted the importance of recognising relatives and humanising a legal
process that some described as feeling ‘cold’ and ‘impersonal’”. 223 Unlike
many other elements of the Phase I hearings, “families were in broad
agreement that the pen portraits also had a positive impact for the Inquiry team
and the legal community”. 224

5.5 However, in our experience, understanding varies amongst coroners as to
whether pen portraits can be utilised in inquests. We recommend that the Chief
Coroner and proposed Central Inquiries Unit clarify that pen portraits
are an important way of placing the bereaved and their loved one at the
heart of the process.

Questioning witnesses

5.6 A number of accounts of inquest proceedings suggest that interested persons
are on occasion subjected to aggressive and inappropriate questioning.
Particularly stark examples are highlighted in INQUEST’s written submission
to Patronising Disposition:

“At the inquest into the death of Cheryl James, who died at Deepcut Barracks,
her father Des James was questioned by a very experienced QC… Q. ‘did it
ever occur to you in the numerous emails, letters and other complaints that you
wrote over that 15-month period, did it ever occur to you that you yourself
might have been distracting Surrey Police from what some might have thought
were even more pressing enquiries?’”

“The mother of a young man who was suffering a mental health crisis and was
transported in restraints to a police station and died shortly after, was
questioned… about her own care for her son, though she had pleaded with
officers to take him to hospital. She collapsed following this ordeal...: ‘I was a

222 Jones, supra note 16, p. 100 Point of Learning 9(iv).
223 INQUEST (2019), supra note 11, para 2.2.

224 Ibid.
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