Mr Justice Chamberlain has fixed October 14 for a one day hearing into complaints raised by Lorna McMahon, the aunt of Granada TV journalist Teresa McMahon, that part of the transcript into her death was missing when it was published by Mary Hassell. It covered the questioning of the journalist’s former partner. The coroner decided her death was suicide but this was challenged by her aunt.
Mr Justice Chamberlain, the head of the administrative court at the Royal Courts of Justice will not hear the case himself but has delegated it to a senior judge.
You can read the background to the case on my blog.
The blog contains a link to my report of the original hearing.
Mr Justice Chamberlain, the head of the Royal Court of Justice’s Administrative Court, has intervened in the case against controversial coroner Mary Hassell by ordering a hearing later this year after months of inaction by the judiciary.
Mr Justice Chamberlain pic credit: Avalon
The allegations that the report of the hearing into the death of ITV news editor Teresa McMahon appeared to be tampered with were brought by her aunt Lorna McMahon at a hearing last July. The judge Mr Justice Stephen Morris took the allegations so seriously that he postponed the judicial review hearing and wanted the matter dealt with speedily later last year. The coroner tried to get her name removed from the hearing but was overruled by the judge saying it was a matter of ” open justice”.
There is a full report of the hearing here. The judge insisted that her allegations must be corroborated by witnesses at the hearing which attracted wide press attention. Two journalists. including myself and a member of the public have come forward saying the text was missing.
Mary Hassell found that the TV journalist committed suicide and ruled out that she was subject to ” coercive control” by her ex boyfriend, Robert Chalmers, an NHS estates employee, who had previous convictions for violence. Mary Hassell believed the words of the pathologist ,Dr Mohammed Bashir, who examined the body but kept no photographic evidence and discounted domestic violence and Greater Manchester Police who decided from the start that no crime had been committed and never took any photographs either at the scene of her death.
The missing text covers when Lorna McMahon was questioning Teresa’s boyfriend after she was frequently interrupted by Mary Hassell.
Court cases involving coroner’s verdicts are very rare and allegations of tampering with the inquest report can be seen as a criminal offence of perverting the course of justice.
Mr Justice Chamberlain looks set to hear the case himself as he ruled that it could not be heard by a deputy high court judge. The full report of the inquest hearing held in December 2024 can be read here.
Westminster Confidential 