The parents of a Cambridge graduate who refused chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer have both been warned about their behaviour in court during an inquest into her death.
Paloma Shemirani, 23, collapsed on July 19 last year and was taken to Royal Sussex County Hospital where she died five days later. She had earlier declined treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Her mother, Kay “Kate” Shemirani, a prominent online conspiracy theorist and her father, Dr Faramarz Shemirani, who is “sympathetic” to his ex-wife’s views, believe medical professionals are to blame for their daughter’s death.
Coroner Catherine Wood, presiding over the inquest at Kent and Medway Coroner’s Court in Maidstone, left the court due to the behaviour of Miss Shemirani’s parents on Tuesday afternoon.
The inquest, which was originally scheduled to conclude on Wednesday, had been extended as the evidence and questioning of witnesses had taken longer than anticipated.
On Tuesday, Mrs Shemirani, who was struck off as a nurse in 2021 after spreading harmful misinformation about Covid-19, was cross-examined by Dr Shemirani.
Questioning broke down when Dr Shemirani, who is understood to have a PhD in computational fluid dynamics, tried to ask his ex-wife’s opinion of medical evidence which she would then try to answer, despite warnings from the coroner.
“Mrs Shemirani, I’ve told you not to speak, I’ll find you in contempt if you keep on speaking now,” the coroner said.
“Confine (yourself) to asking questions of this witness as a witness of fact,” she told Dr Shemirani.
As Dr Shemirani argued back through his video-link, the coroner said: “Dr Shemirani, challenge me by judicial review later” before trying to move on.
“Of course I will, of course I will,” he replied.
Later, Dr Shemirani once again tried to ask questions which had already been ruled irrelevant by the coroner.
“I’m going to rise for a few minutes because I’m finding it incredibly difficult to keep you on track,” said Ms Wood.
Dr Shemirani continued to speak until the coroner shouted “Dr Shemirani, listen”.
“Your behaviour has been bordering on contemptuous to the court – when I make a ruling on something you cannot come back,” she added.
Mrs Shemirani also accused osteopath Nick Gosset of lying under oath earlier in the inquest.
Mr Gosset treated Miss Shemirani the day she collapsed and said she had appeared to be in the “last stages of a very difficult disease”.
He told the court that when he inspected her, he could feel lumps in her right shoulder going all the way up into her neck, which he identified as lymphoid mass and that he “had never seen anything like it” in 43 years of practice.
Mr Gosset told the court: “It was obvious to me that I was not the right person to be helping her, normally you see a patient like that, you would refer her (to a GP).
“Any referral was refused – when I suggested that the proper avenue of approach was through a normal, medical channel she dismissed it.
On Tuesday, Paloma’s mother said “his statement under oath is completely opposed with the truth” and has argued her daughter was healthy the day she collapsed.
The inquest continues on Wednesday.
