R (Pat Long) v Secretary of State for Defence

The Court of Appeal has given judgment in an important case on the right to life under Article 2.

Corporal Paul Long was one of six British soldiers of the Royal Military Police (RMP) who were unlawfully killed on 24 June 2003 by members of a crowd at an Iraqi police station. His mother, Mrs Pat Long, contended that there was an ongoing breach of the duty that arises under Article 2 to investigate the circumstances of a death where it is arguable that the death resulted from a breach of the substantive Article 2 duty to protect life.

The Court of Appeal, disagreeing with the Divisional Court, held that there was an arguable breach of the substantive Article 2 duty in this case, so as to trigger the investigative duty. The arguable breach arose from the practice of the RMP of not complying with an Order which required them to be equipped with an iridium telephone when going on patrol. There were clear indications that this was a case of systemic insufficiency of control and not mere negligence by an individual. Had the patrol of which Corporal Long was part been equipped with an iridium phone, there was a real prospect that their deaths could have been avoided.

However, the Court of Appeal upheld the Divisional Court’s rulings that any investigative duty had been discharged by previous inquiries and that, even if the duty to investigate had not been discharged, the duty is no longer continuing.

The judgment is available at:
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2015/770.html

Michael Fordham QC and Iain Steele represented Mrs Long.