On 12 December 2024, a jury sitting in Bradford Coroner’s Court returned a conclusion of natural cases in the inquest touching upon the death of Claire Louise Harper.
On 7 January 2018, Claire was in police custody having been arrested in the early hours. She was seen by the custody nurse, taken to hospital and then seen by the nurse again who deemed her fit to be detained. She was placed on level 1 observations to allow her to rest.
Later that day, she was found unresponsive having suffered a cardiac arrest. Following a thorough examination of the factual and expert evidence, and having heard submissions from all interested persons, the court found as follows:
- Claire’s cardiac arrest was caused by an undetected cardiomyopathy;
- It would not be Galbraith-compliant to permit the jury to consider whether any acts or omissions caused or contributed towards Claire’s death; and
- Article 2 was not engaged, this being a natural causes death with no real and immediate risk to life. Thus, the jury was not permitted to consider or record any possible causes of death.
Adding to the conclusion of natural causes, the jury recorded their findings which included that Claire’s detention was appropriate and her death was sudden and unexpected.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c049penk41lo.amp