Murdered teacher’s family welcome ruling on challenge
THE FAMILY of murdered Yorkshire schoolteacher Ann Maguire have welcomed a legal ruling that they hope will play a crucial role in establishing the full facts about the killing.
Mrs Maguire’s loved ones were yesterday given the go-ahead to mount a challenge in the High Court to the proposed scope of the inquest into her death at the hands of 15-year-old pupil Will Cornick.
Assistant West Yorkshire Coroner Kevin McLoughlin had previously decided that the inquest would not hear evidence from students who had contact with Cornick immediately prior to the murder in a Leeds classroom.
The coroner concluded that the “risk of psychological harm outweighed the potential benefit” of calling the pupils as witnesses. But at a court hearing in London yesterday, Mrs Justice Lang ruled that Mrs Maguire’s husband, children and nephews could attempt to overturn Mr McLoughlin’s decision. She said they had an “arguable” case which should be fully aired at a hearing in July.
The family’s barrister, Nick Armstrong, told the court that Mrs Maguire’s death was the “only occasion on which a teacher has been killed by a pupil in a British classroom”, and part of their case was that “it flows from this alone that all lesson-learning that can be done, should be done”.
The coroner, he argued, failed to take into account “material matters” when reaching an “unreasonable and irrational” decision. The Maguire family issued a statement through law firm Irwin Mitchell saying they were pleased by the ruling. They added: “We hope this will be the first step
on the road to establishing the true circumstances surrounding the murder of Ann Maguire.”
Irwin Mitchell partner Yogi Amin said: “The family have many unanswered questions and hoped that a full inquest, held in public, would examine the full chain of events and all the evidence available so that lessons could be learned to reduce the risk of similar incidents happening again.
“Ann Maguire’s family have from the outset asked for a thorough, full and independent investigation into the horrific events that led to her murder by a pupil whilst she was teaching in the classroom. They believe this would be the best use of time and public resources.
“However they became very concerned about the scope of the full inquest hearing scheduled for later this year. The police investigation was itself limited in scope as the defendant quickly admitted responsibility, meaning there was no examination of all the evidence publicly.
“The family want to know the full facts and hope that they will still be able to get the necessary answers through an independent and fair process at the inquest.”
Mrs Maguire, 61, was stabbed at Halton Moor’s Corpus Christi Catholic College in April 2014.
Cornick was later jailed for life. He had threatened to kill the mother-of-two in social media posts and on the morning of the attack talked to fellow pupils about wanting to murder her.
A Leeds Safeguarding Children Board report into the circumstances surrounding the killing concluded that the incident could not have been predicted or preempted.
The Maguire family has condemned the report, published in November last year, as a “massively missed opportunity”.
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post on the eve of last month’s third anniversary of the murder, Mrs Maguire’s widower, Don, described her as “the kindest of souls” and a “most extraordinary teacher”.
Mrs Maguire’s inquest is due to take place before a jury at Wakefield Coroner’s Court in November.