Chief Coroner’s Birmingham Bomb decision quashed.

Today the Divisional Court gave judgment in R (Hambleton) v. Coroner for the Birmingham Inquests. This was a judicial review challenge to the decision of the Chief Coroner, who was appointed to hear the inquests into the deaths of the victims of the Birmingham Bombings in 1974. The Chief Coroner decided to exclude from the scope of the inquest the question of who was responsible for the atrocity. The judicial review challenge was made on behalf of relatives of 10 of those killed. The Divisional Court upheld the claim, quashing the Chief Coroner’s decision. The court provided guidance on how decisions of this nature should be taken.

The bombings were the largest peacetime loss of life in their time, with 21 people killed and a further 220 injured. The miscarriage of justice by West Midlands Police in respect of their investigation of the Birmingham Six is notorious.

Adam Straw represented the claimants, instructed by KRW Law.  

Read about this case in the media here.