The chief coroner has condemned “yellow vest” protesters who invaded a west London courthouse and “intimidated” officials by livestreaming themselves demanding an inquest.
Judge Mark Lucraft said coroners and their staff should be free to make independent decisions about hearings without being subject to “attacks”.
Five people have been arrested after the incursion at west London coroner’s court in Fulham on Thursday. The protesters, who were inspired by France’s gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement, filmed themselves during the stunt.
The online video, showing the coroner Chinyere Inyama sitting silent in his office as he is criticised by the group, has been viewed approximately 20,000 times. It lasts more than half an hour and shows an apparent struggle between a protester and a member of court staff.
A spokesman for the chief coroner said: “[He] was very troubled to hear of the attack on the coroner’s court in west London.
“Coroners are judicial office holders carrying out important public duties and they, along with their officers and other staff, must be allowed to deal with cases and make independent judicial decisions without attack or intimidation from anyone – whatever their interests or motivations.”
The protest related to the deaths of three teenage boys who were hit by a car as they walked to a 16th birthday party. Jaynesh Chudasama was jailed last year after pleading guilty to causing the deaths of semi-professional footballer Harry Rice, 17, apprentice electrician George Wilkinson, 16, and labourer Josh McGuinness, 16, by dangerous driving.
The car hire worker was more than two and a half times the legal limit for alcohol and doing 71mph on a 60mph road in Hayes, west London, when he drove into the teenagers. His 13-year prison term was cut to 10 and a half years by three judges at the court of appeal in London.
Josh’s mother, Tracy Blackwell, was one of the group filmed at the court on Thursday, criticising the way the coroner had dealt with the case. The group chanted “Josh, George, Harry” after police officers arrived, before eventually leaving the office.
The Metropolitan police said four men and a woman were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and taken to a police station in west London before being bailed until early May. No arrests were made on camera.
Officers had been called after reports that “a number of people had forced entry to the building and had refused to leave when asked by security staff”.
Protesters wearing hi-vis yellow vests tried to storm the attorney general’s office in a similar incident last month after a chaotic court appearance at Westminster magistrates court, where the pro-Brexit protester James Goddard denied harassing the pro-remain MP Anna Soubry.
