*Natalie Bennett urges greater support for Surrey family’s bid to attend inquest into death of their seven year old son.
There is an “overwhelming argument” for David Cameron to intervene and approve a Surrey family’s request for legal aid so they can be properly represented at the inquest into the death of their seven year old son, writes the Green Party’s leader in a letter to the Prime Minister.
Zane Gbangbola died in the early hours of 8 February 2014 during the disastrous flooding that struck Surrey and many other parts of Britain. At that time, high levels of hydrogen cyanide were detected at Zane’s home by incident response teams, however, the emergency log read in the coroner court pre-inquest meeting had largely been redacted.
On that night, all three family members were taken to hospital. Both Kye (father) and Zane had suffered a cardiac arrest. Zane died and Kye remains paralysed from the waist down.
In her letter, Natalie Bennett refers to David Cameron’s BBC Radio Surrey interview on the subject where he acknowledges that inquests are usually exempt from the legal aid fund, apart from in “exceptional circumstances”. [1]
Natalie goes on to highlight the issues she believes makes the case an exceptional circumstance while highlighting the many public safety concerns regarding it.
Bennett said:
“Yes, legal aid is not usually provided to help people in circumstances like these, but it does happen. The Scottish Government recently provided legal aid for families of the Glasgow bin lorry tragedy to pursue a private case and in 2014, the UK government helped a family whose two children were tragically killed by fumes whilst sleeping in their hotel room in Corfu. Zane’s case is an exceptional circumstance. [2] [3]
“The Gbangbola family are suffering terribly, not just from the bereavement and the physical injuries they received, but from not knowing the full details of what happened that night. At very least they deserve to know and they should be able to participate fully in the inquest.
“As I outlined to the Prime Minister, the need for careful and sensitive advice to help them through the unfamiliar and daunting experience of an inquest is paramount.”
More than 30,000 people have signed a petition calling for an investigation and public debate into the death of Zane. [4]
ENDS
Notes:
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03jyf53
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/09/glasgow-bin-lorry-crash-legal-aid
[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-27638124
Truth About Zane Campaign: www.truthaboutzane.com
The letter:
Dear Rt Hon David Cameron,
On the 10th March you were interviewed on Radio Surrey on the Danny Pike Show. You were asked if you would intervene in relation to Nicole and Kye Gbangbola’s loss of their appeal for legal representation at the inquest of their seven year old son, Zane, who died during the flooding at Chertsey in February 2014. In the interview you stated that ‘inquests are generally carried out in a way that means that people don’t need a lawyer in order to participate fully in the proceedings and that’s why inquests are out of the scope of the legal aid fund, unless there’s some exceptional circumstances’.
On the 8th February 2014 the fire and rescue team who attended the incident monitored the air in the family home and confirmed that "25,000 parts per million of hydrogen cyanide" were present. Hydrogen cyanide was also found in the family's blood. Clearly there are exceptional circumstances surrounding this case and without doubt there are issues of public safety pursuant that clearly warrant the case for legal aid. However, the Legal Aid Agency has declined their request for funding because they say the case does not meet the public-interest criteria for it to be an exceptional case for funding. Further, Bob Neill, chairman of the Commons Justice Select Committee has stated that: ‘It is clear there is a public-safety issue at the centre of this tragic case and this decision ought to be looked at again’. In addition, with more than 30,000 signatures on a petition demanding the truth about Zane´s death, there is very obviously much public concern about the sad circumstances surrounding this terrible tragedy. Meanwhile, the Environment Agency, Spelthorne Borough Council and the local NHS trust have all hired barristers at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to fight the case. The company that owns the former landfill site also have a barrister.
Nicole and Kye have experienced unbearable suffering with the loss of their child, and the need for careful and sensitive advice to help them through the unfamiliar and daunting experience of an inquest is paramount. It will be an agonising and harrowing experience for them just to turn up to the inquest each day let alone represent themselves. No parent who has lost a child should have to face a hearing in which they have to represent themselves with such an imbalance of legal forces. That, combined with the public´s clearly expressed interest means, I believe, there is an overwhelming argument for your intervention to provide legal aid, in the interests of justice, and common humanity.
Yours sincerely,
Natalie Bennett, Green Party Leader.