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• Mum hopes inquest will bring justice for her son

Mum hopes inquest will bring justice for her son

24th November 2011

Jenny Hunter, who is in her 80s, is hoping an inquest will finally establish what caused the death of her son Julian Hunter, 44 of Finchley, three and half years ago. The inquest on 24th November will take place at Barnet Coroner's Court into the death of Julian Hunter. The Mirror Newspaper reported, 'the man who died in hospital after suffering a two-hour nose bleed could have survived if he had been monitored more closely, an inquest has been told'.

Mrs Hunter, from Finchley in North London, is also hoping light will be shed on a catalogue of errors by the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and a Coroner’s Office, involving the Court system and the Metropolitan Police. Mrs Hunter’s spokesman, Andrew McGowan of Neil Hudgell Solicitors, compensation lawyers, said: “We are hoping we will at last get to the bottom of what happened to Julian Hunter and what went wrong following his death.

This has been a dreadful ordeal for Mrs Hunter. She feels she has been let down at every stage by the hospital, the Coroner’s Office, the Court system and the police. All she wants is justice for Julian and closure for herself.” Julian Hunter, 44, was pronounced dead at The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead on May 29, 2008 – a week after he’d been attacked and kidnapped near his home in Finchley. Last month, the hospital finally admitted that Julian Hunter had received substandard treatment and accepted that if he had received the correct treatment he would still be alive today.

Mrs Hunter is now pursuing a negligence claim for compensation. But Jenny Hunter still doesn’t know if Julian’s death was as a result of the attack he suffered at the hands of Steven Quinn who was later convicted of the assault, false imprisonment and robbery of Julian. Quinn was not charged with offences arising from Julian Hunter's death.

A Post Mortem Report in October 2008 listed several possible causes of Julian’s death: pneumonia, reduced blood supply to the brain, multi organ failure, cardiac arrest and epistaxis (heavy nose bleed) following a nasal fracture. However, the Barnet Coroner’s Officer at the time did not pass a copy of the Post Mortem Report to the Metropolitan Police so no link between the attack and Julian’s death was investigated. Consequently, Steven Quinn was tried and convicted in January 2009 for the Assault, Robbery and False Imprisonment of Julian Hunter, although court records show that it was known during the trial that Mr Hunter had died shortly after the attack.

It was only in July 2010, after Mrs Hunter’s repeated efforts to get information from the Coroner’s Officer and the intervention on Mrs Hunter’s behalf of the charity MAMAA (Mothers Against Murder and Aggression) and Neil Hudgell Solicitors that it was revealed that both copies of the PM report were still in Barnet Coroner’s Office. The Coroner’s Officer then asked the Metropolitan Police to re-investigate Julian’s death.

However, in June 2011, a Senior Crown Prosecutor advised Mrs Hunter that a prosecution of Quinn in connection with Julian Hunter's death was unlikely as it may amount to an “abuse of process”. Lyn Costello, co-founder of MAMAA, said: "Jenny Hunter had been left to navigate a Criminal Justice System, that is extremely complex, in an attempt to achieve justice for her son. This case highlights the importance of the effective advocacy being made available to victims of serious violence and homicide, as has been recommended by former Victim Commissioner, Louise Casey." Andrew McGowan said: “Mrs Hunter doesn’t understand why she was ignored for so long by the Coroner’s Office, why, even without a post mortem report, the police investigating the assault on Julian didn’t also inquire if the attack was related to his death and why it’s not possible for his death to be properly investigated now.”

Related articles:

BBC News London -Hospital criticised over nose bleed man's 'avoidable' death

Grantham Journal - 'Nose Bleed Man's Death Avoidable'

Stamford Mercury - 'Finchley man, Julian Hunter, 44, who died in hospital after suffering a two-hour nose bleed could have survived'

Bourne Local - 'Julian Hunter's death avoidable'

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