Paul Knapman

Paul Knapman DL was Her Majesty’s Coroner for the central London Borough of Westminster, from 1980 to 2011. He was made Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London in 2008. His responsibility for investigating sudden deaths as an independent judicial officer saw him preside over numerous notable cases.

Cases and events

He was most recently in the news[1] (October 2010) when presiding over the inquest of the barrister Mark Saunders, controversially shot to death by Metropolitan Police on 6 May 2008. After the ruling of ‘lawful killing’ Knapman revealed that he would use his powers as coroner to highlight lessons that should be learned by the police for the future[2] and would make copies of his recommendation available to Secretary of State for Justice, Kenneth Clarke.

He has an entry in Debrett's,[3] the two-century-old guide to people of distinction and etiquette.

Early life

Knapman went to Epsom College, Surrey, King's College London, and St George's Hospital Medical School, London, where he qualified as a doctor – MB, BS (1968). He then proceeded to read for the Bar at the Council of Legal Education, and was called to the Bar as a barrister in 1972.

Honours

Posts held

Charitable work

Knapman helped found the charity, the Coroners’ Courts Support Service, with a pilot scheme in his court, which commenced in January 2003.The charity won the research, advice and support category of The Charity Awards (UK) 2011.[4] He was the Chairman of the board of trustees of the charity until 2011.

Books and publications

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, October 17, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.