The mother of a murdered 14-year-old boy has lost a High Court challenge over a coroner’s decision not to resume her son’s inquest.
Jada Bailey challenged the March 2024 decision of Graeme Irvine, the senior coroner for east London, not to resume the inquest into the death of her son, Jaden Moodie, who was stabbed nine times after being knocked off a scooter in Leyton, east London, on January 8 2019.
In December that year, then-19-year-old Ayoub Majdouline was jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years for the killing, with the coroner issuing a certificate the same month stating that Jaden’s inquest was not to be resumed.
A Serious Case Review (SCR) – in which Jaden was referred to as Child C – released in May 2020 and carried out by the Safeguarding Children’s Board for Waltham Forest, found that criminal gangs had groomed him for at least a year before his death.
It also found that there was a missed opportunity to protect the teenager from gangs when police found him in a property in Bournemouth, Dorset, with drugs and cash three months before he was murdered.
Ms Bailey applied for the inquest to be reopened in 2023 but had her request rejected in March 2024, which she then sought to challenge at the High Court in a hearing held in February and June this year.
But in a ruling on Monday, Mr Justice Swift dismissed the claim, upholding the coroner’s finding that it was unlikely that their conclusion “would go beyond the conclusions already reached”.
An inquest into Jaden’s death was formally opened 10 days after his death, but was adjourned in April 2019 ahead of Majdouline’s trial.
Deciding not to resume Jaden’s inquest in March 2024, Mr Irvine said he found the SCR and other reviews had “covered the likely scope of an inquest” and there was “involvement of the next of kin to the extent necessary to safeguard their legitimate interests”.
He said that “any primary conclusion at inquest could not be inconsistent with the result of a criminal trial, and therefore ‘unlawful killing’ would be the most appropriate conclusion”.
He added that “other inquiries into Jaden’s death have been able to make recommendations and require action”, and that he was therefore “not satisfied… that there is sufficient reason” to resume the inquest.
Mr Justice Swift said in his ruling that Ms Bailey claimed that errors highlighted by the SCR “ought to be investigated in further detail”, and that the review “failed the requirement for sufficient public scrutiny”.
But the judge said that the SCR report “is a highly impressive piece of work” that gave a “thorough and thoughtful consideration of all relevant matters”.
He continued that when “considered in the round”, the SCR report “identifies and then scrutinises the acts and omissions of the relevant public authorities”, and that Ms Bailey had the opportunity to be involved in it.
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