The Home Secretary has appointed Kate Blackwell QC as Counsel to the Jermaine Baker Public Inquiry

Kate Blackwell QC has been appointed to act as Counsel to the Inquiry into the shooting of Jermaine Baker by a firearms officer of the Metropolitan Police in Wood Green in 2015.

At a virtual preliminary hearing on 28 July 2020 the Chairman HH Clement Goldstone QC fixed the substantive oral hearings, which are estimated to last for 8 weeks, to commence on 14 June 2021.

The Home Secretary set up an independent inquiry, under the Inquires Act 2005, on 12 February 2020. As Kate submitted at the hearing on 28 July 2020, since that time, “None of us could have predicted the dramatic and limiting effect that the COVID-19 pandemic would have on all of our lives.”

The Inquiry Legal Team has so far received over 23,000 pages of potentially relevant material which is currently being reviewed and prepared for disclosure to the Core Participants.

 

The family of Jermaine Baker described the delay in proceedings as being “almost unbearable”.

The Inquiry undertook to ensure that, “as soon as possible, all of the material that the family can possibly see is provided to them.”

Counsel for the family thanked Kate for reassuring the family that the Inquiry Legal Team “will work as quickly as we can and as carefully as we can. We are dedicated to ensure that justice is done and seen to be done throughout this process.”

A livestream recording of the 28 July 2020 hearing can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jys5Zzx3cw

The website for the JBI can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/jermaine-baker-public-inquiry