Family fight for inquest on dad’s overdose death
Sep 23 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal
THE family of a man who died after allegedly being given a lethal overdose by his GP are fighting in London’s High Court for a full inquest into his death.
Frank Moss died aged 59 in 2003 after allegedly being given an opiate overdose by Doctor Howard Martin, who practised in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, but now lives in Gwynedd, North Wales.
Dr Martin was acquitted at Teesside Crown Court in October 2005 of three charges of murder, after denying killing Mr Moss and two other County Durham residents, Harry Gittins, 74, and Stanley Weldon, 74, with morphine overdoses in 2003 and 2004. The three were his patients when he was a partner at the Jubilee Medical Group, which has surgeries in Newton Aycliffe, Shildon and Eldon.
Following the not-guilty verdicts at the Crown Court, County Durham coroner Andrew Tweddle decided against reopening an inquest into Mr Moss’s death, or those of Mr Gittins and Mr Weldon.
Now Mr Moss’s daughter Alison, of Oak Green Flats, Brandon, near Durham, has launched a judicial review challenge at London’s High Court in a bid to get that decision quashed.
Lawyers for Ms Moss argue that there is evidence upon which an inquest jury could find that Mr Moss was unlawfully killed by Dr Martin.
Yesterday, at London’s High Court, barrister Stephen Cragg, for Ms Moss, argued that the coroner’s decision violated Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights – which enshrines the right to life.
He told Mr Justice Underhill that the state has a duty under the Convention to investigate suspicious deaths in areas, such as public health care or the criminal justice system, over which it has control.
Mr Cragg added that, even if there was no obligation to reopen the inquest under the Convention, there was still a duty at common law to allay suspicion over Mr Moss’s death.
The barrister said that toxicology reports taken at the time of Mr Moss’s death showed that he had unusually high opiate levels in his system.
Describing the case as at the top end of the scale of seriousness, Mr Cragg said the criminal trial had not explored whether Dr Martin had caused Mr Moss’s death by an unlawful act or gross negligence, but merely explored whether he had been guilty of murder. However, Richard Perks, for the coroner, urged Mr Justice Underhill to uphold the decision not to reopen the inquest, which was made last July, and reconfirmed, following further considerations, seven weeks later.
Mr Perks told the judge that not only had there been a criminal trial, but the General Medical Council was set to hold an exhaustive inquiry into Dr Martin’s fitness to practice.
He said that Ms Moss, and other members of her family, would be called to give evidence, although he conceded that they would not be represented by counsel at the GMC hearing.
In April this year at the High Court, Dr Martin’s suspension from practice, which began in September 2004, was extended for a further 12 months.
Mr Justice Underhill reserved his decision.
Last October Mr Tweddle recorded an open verdict into the death of a fourth patient of Dr Martin, cancer sufferer William Kerr, 84, whose body was exhumed at the request of police two years after his death in 2003.
