The whole claim

Criminal cases and coroner’s inquests

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Evidence on the mechanism, severity and survivability of chest injury, for prosecution, defence and for inquests.

Criminal proceedings

Wounding, GBH, manslaughter and murder

I am instructed in cases involving penetrating and blunt injury to the chest, most often in proceedings for wounding, grievous bodily harm, manslaughter and murder.

Questions I am asked

The anatomical structures involved and the depth and direction of the injury track
The degree of force required to produce the injury described
Whether the injuries are consistent with a given account of how they were caused, and whether they are consistent with alternative accounts
Whether the injury was life-threatening, and on what basis
Whether the injury was survivable with prompt treatment, and what the window was
The likely period of incapacity, the permanence of the injury, and the long-term consequences
The adequacy of the emergency and surgical treatment given, where that is in issue

What I do not do

I am a treating surgeon, not a forensic pathologist.
Questions of cause of death, post-mortem interpretation, wound age and pathological findings are for a forensic pathologist.
My evidence concerns the clinical management of chest injury and what the injury meant for a living patient — including, where the patient died, whether they could have survived with different treatment.

Coroner’s inquests

I have given evidence at inquest 8 times

I understand the inquisitorial nature of the proceedings and the difference between the coroner’s questions and those asked in civil proceedings — reports are written to answer the coroner’s questions, not to advance any party’s position. Instructions typically concern the following case types.

Deaths following chest trauma, and whether earlier or different management would have prevented them

Deaths following thoracic surgery, and whether the complication was recognised and managed appropriately

Deaths following chest drain insertion or other pleural intervention

Deaths following delayed diagnosis of thoracic malignancy

Deaths in which a Regulation 28 report to prevent future deaths is in contemplation

Practical matters

Three things worth knowing

Availability

Give me the date as soon as you have it Criminal listings and inquests move, and a consultant surgeon’s operating list is fixed weeks in advance. Give me the date as soon as you have it and I will protect it. Late listings are the single practical difficulty in this work and early notice solves almost all of it.

Form of report

Section 9 statements and CrimPR Part 19 Reports are prepared in the form required by the jurisdiction in which they will be used, with the appropriate declaration.

Legal aid

Not accepted Legal aid rates are not accepted.

Discuss a case

Fifteen minutes on the telephone, free of charge. I will tell you whether the issues fall within my expertise before anything is committed to paper.

Discuss a case