When reporting on legal cases, the media often refers to the Coroner or coronial inquests.
The purpose of this article is to provide you with a brief understanding of what a Coroner does, and how they fit into the legal system.
The role of the Coroner is to investigate instances of death in circumstances where the death of a person is not immediately explainable. The Coroner will conduct investigations to determine how a deceased person came to die, including the circumstances surrounding their death, and also investigate the cause of fires and explosions. The Coroner is essentially a fact finder whose role is to find out the circumstances of these types of events as opposed to determining a person’s guilt or laying criminal charges.
Doctors, emergency service workers, police and other healthcare professionals are obliged to report deaths to the Coroner if they occur in the following circumstances:
- Sudden deaths and deaths with an unknown cause.
- Violent or unnatural death.
- Death resulting from accident or injury.
- The death of a person who had not been attended to by a doctor in the previous six months.
- Deaths that occur in custody or in the course of a police operation.
- Deaths where the identity of the deceased person is not known.
- Deaths of children who are known to the Department of Family & Community Services.
One of the most common scenarios where a coronial inquest occurs is in the case of missing persons.
This occurs when the police officer in charge of a missing persons investigation is satisfied that they have pursued all avenues of investigation and no further enquiries can be made by them as to whether or not a missing person is alive or dead.
The Coroner will then assess all of the factual information in relation to the missing person, and make a determination as to whether or not they believe the missing person is alive or dead. If the Coroner finds that the most likely scenario is that the missing person is deceased, then the investigation will be closed unless new evidence becomes available.
A Coroner cannot find someone guilty of a crime. The Coroner can however make recommendations to governments and other agencies in relation to matters of public health and safety.
A Coroner can also refer a matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions if they form they opinion that a person involved in the coronial inquest has committed an indictable offence in connection with the death. It is then up to the Director of Public Prosecutions whether or not charges will be laid against the said person.
