By Pauline Campbell. Pauline Campbell's daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Campbell, died within HMP & YOI Styal (THE GUARDIAN, 04/05/06):
Ian Mayes rightly argues that the Press Complaints Commission's code as it stands has been completely inadequate in relation to suicide (The readers' editor on ... another look at rules for reporting suicide, April 24). Ethical standards in journalism reached an all-time low when three newspapers recently published photographs of a woman jumping to her death from the fourth floor of a London hotel.Mayes refers to the recent, somewhat astonishing, decision of the PCC when it ruled that publication of the photographs did not breach the editors' code on intrusion into grief or shock. Self-regulation was clearly not working.
Publication of the pictures will have caused untold distress to the family and friends of the deceased woman, exacerbating their grief. If the commission is to salvage its integrity, its woefully inadequate code needs a complete overhaul.
However, the case raises wider concerns, which must be taken into account when the PCC hears its subcommittee's recommendations on whether the code "as it currently stands, is sufficient to cover the reporting of suicide, and any sudden death". When someone has seemingly taken their own life, editors should be aware that an inquest will be outstanding, and care should be exercised when reporting the facts.
This is particularly important when a death in custody inquest is held. The coroner sits with a jury in a court of law, and it is for the jury to decide, in the light of all available evidence, whether or not a suicide verdict is appropriate. To describe a death as a suicide, or apparent suicide, prior to an inquest taking place, is unacceptable. The word suicide has legal connotations, and no one has the right to pre-empt the findings of a jury.
My daughter's death in 2003 is a case in point. Aged 18, and the youngest of six women to die in the "care" of Styal Prison within a 12-month period, the cause of her death was antidepressant prescription drug poisoning. When the inquests were held, the juries did not return suicide verdicts, yet on numerous occasions newspapers have referred to the deaths as suicides, both before and after the inquests.
At the first inquest, into the death of a 20-year-old mother found hanged in her cell, the jury actually returned an open verdict. The woman occupied a shared cell, and no evidence was given at her inquest to account for the unexplained injuries to her body; this is a matter of public record. When an open verdict has been recorded, it is wrong to refer to a death as a suicide, as the jury and coroner have quite clearly held that this was not the case.
The Home Office has classified the six Styal deaths as self-inflicted, but there is a commonly held misconception that a self-inflicted death and a suicide are the same thing. Journalists making incorrect assumptions fail to realise that suicide is to do with intent. A jury is not allowed to return a suicide verdict unless the evidence indicates that the person intended to take their own life. Responsible coverage of such deaths necessitates accurate reporting of the facts but, equally important, should also take into account the feelings of grieving families.