Introduction by Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi and Clare Sambrook
Every inquest held when someone dies in the state's care or custody deserves proper scrutiny. But many go unreported. Sometimes the only observers are from the bereaved family. If the family is unable to attend (perhaps they live in another country, far away), it may be that no observers are present.
Here at Shine A Light we have for years reported on inquests that might otherwise escape public scrutiny, including 20 detailed reports (2014 to 2016) from otherwise ignored or under-reported inquests into the deaths of detained migrant men: Bruno Dos Santos, Alois Dvorzak and Brian Dalrymple. In the summer of 2018, we covered every day of the inquest into the death in police custody of young Black Londoner Rashan Charles. And in the winter of 2019 we attended the inquest of Carlington Spencer, a 38 year old Jamaican man who was left for more than 12 hours after suffering a stroke in immigration detention, despite his friends alerting detention centre staff about his condition. He died in hospital four days later.
