LF, R (on the application of) v HM Senior Coroner for Inner South London & Anor

Victoria Butler-Cole (instructed by Bindmans LLP ) for the Claimant Jonathan Hough QC (instructed by Legal Services Southwark Council) for the Defendant Hearing dates: 24 June 2015 ____________________

This common sense approach has regard to all the relevant circumstances relating to the concrete situation on the ground.

Those with learning disabilities may be "persons of unsound mind" within Art. 5.1(e). Here, there is no or no real dispute that Maria was a person of unsound mind for these purposes.

While the Notes clearly contemplate a broadening of the ambit of state detention (as contrasted with the 1988 Act), they make no mention of a patient, whether suffering from a prior mental incapacity or not, receiving treatment in the intensive care unit ("ICU") of, or elsewhere in, a hospital for a physical condition. However, the Notes make it clear that the lawfulness of the detention is not relevant; what matters is whether or not at the time of death the deceased was in state detention.

i) An inquest must be held, even if the cause of death has been established and found to be natural.