Community meeting following verdict of the Mark Duggan inquest
14 Jan 2014
This week Diane Abbottt MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, hosted a packed meeting in the House of Commons to discuss the coroner’s verdict on the shooting of Mark Duggan. The speakers included: barrister Matthew Ryder QC; Deborah Coles, Co-Director of Inquest; Carole Duggan, Mark Duggan’s aunt and Claudia Webbe, ex-chairperson of New Scotland Yard’s Operation Trident Independent Advisory Group. The Duggan family’s lawyer, Martha Willis Stewart, was also present to offer legal advice. It was attended by over 150 people.Diane Abbott said today "I was very pleased to host this meeting. Although the Duggans are Tottenham residents, the issues raised by the coroner’s verdict are of national interest. A number of people attended the meeting who had followed the coroner’s court day by day. They were very clear that they did not believe that the jury’s finding fitted with the evidence that they had heard. But I support the Duggan family in their call for peace. And they must decide what further legal action they take now. But I think the important thing is to work on some of the issues raised by the Duggan affair, including whether or not the IPCC is fit for purpose. And there are other related issues like disproportionate levels of stop and search on BME communities and deaths in custody. I have campaigned on these issues for years and intend to continue working on them in the light of the Duggan verdict. ”
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