Van Colle v United Kingdom

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section) has given judgment in this important case concerning the scope of the positive obligation to protect life under Article 2 ECHR.

The case arose from the tragic death of Giles Van Colle in 2000. His parents brought proceedings in the domestic courts alleging that the police had failed in their duties under Article 2 to protect Giles from a man against whom he was due to give evidence in a criminal trial and who had threatened Giles with violence. That man went on to murder Giles. The claims were successful in the High Court and the Court of Appeal, but the House of Lords allowed an appeal by the police. Giles’ parents accordingly made an application to the European Court alleging a breach by the United Kingdom of its obligations under the Convention.

The European Court reaffirmed the test set out in Osman v United Kingdom (1998) 29 EHRR 245, namely that there will be a breach of the positive obligation if the authorities knew or ought to have known at the time of the existence of a real and immediate risk to the life of an identified individual or individuals from the criminal acts of a third party and that they failed to take measures within the scope of their powers which, judged reasonably, might have been expected to avoid that risk.

However, on the facts of the case, the Court held that whilst it ought to have been known to the police that there was an escalating situation of intimidation of a number of witnesses including Giles, it could not be said that there was a decisive stage in the sequence of events leading up to the murder when the police knew or ought to have known of a real and immediate risk to Giles’ life.

The Court’s judgment is available at:
http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-114473

Monica Carss-Frisk QC and Iain Steele acted for the applicants.