Fresh Inquest Into the Death of Jessie Earl

Friday 17 December 2021

Stephen Kamlish QC and Christopher Williams of Garden Court Chambers represented the family of Jessie Earl in the Divisional Court on 14 December 2021.

The court quashed the 1989 inquest of Jessie Earl who disappeared in 1980 aged 22.

Share This Page

Email This Page

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

During the course of the hearing, it was argued that the circumstances in which her remains were found in 1989 overwhelmingly pointed to murder.

The court reserved its final judgment and indicated that the open verdict of the 1989 inquest would be quashed and there will now be a new inquest into the death.  

Stephen Kamlish QC submitted that the police when treating the death as non-suspicious, following the discovery of Jessie’s remains in 1989: failed to follow lines of enquiry that were likely to lead to the truth, shut down their investigation after four weeks, with 103 lines of inquiry left uncompleted, and disposed of key evidence (including Jessie’s bra which was the only item of clothing found with her remains). Evidence placed before the court showed that if the bra had been retained and DNA tested it would likely have identified her killer.

The inquest was reported in BBC News.

Related Areas of Law

We are top ranked by independent legal directories and consistently win awards.

+ View more awards