The Home Secretary, Theresa May’s application to have a closed hearing for sensitive evidence at the July 7 inquest failed because it would have meant a jury hearing evidence that the family could not.
Handing down its judgment this week, the High Court said the central question was whether rule 17 of the Coroners Rules 1984 empowers the coroner to exclude properly interested persons and their legal representatives from part of an inquest and to receive and later take into account closed material received in their absence.
Mr Justice Maurice Kay said: “Rule 17 applies equally to inquests where there is or there is not a jury.
This raises the obvious question of how a closed procedure could possibly operate with a randomly-selected jury.
It cannot have been contemplated that a properly interested person and his legal representative would be excluded while a jury sees and hears closed material.”
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