Jack Murphy

Inquests & Public Inquiries

“Jack is a very skilled and talented junior”. (Chambers and Partners 2025)

Jack has an established specialist Inquests and Public Inquiries practice, and is ranked in both the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners.

Clients include infrastructure companies (Balfour Beatty, RATP); public services (South Central Ambulance Service, G4S, Mitie); international healthcare providers (Bupa, HCA); local authorities (Surrey County Council); and government departments (the Ministry of Justice).

He appeared in the first well-publicised case involving unlawful killing after the Supreme Court case of Maughan, represented South Central Ambulance Service in the Forbury Gardens Terrorist Attack Inquests, was instructed regarding the Grenfell Inquiry; and is currently instructed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in the Cranston Inquiry into small boat crossings of the Channel.

He was appointed to the Attorney General’s C Panel in 2021, and accepts instructions on behalf of government departments.

He is regularly instructed by leading solicitors in the field.

Selected Cases

• The Cranston Inquiry (March 2025) – Let by James Maxwell-Scott KC, Jack is Junior Counsel for the MCA in the Cranston Inquiry, set up to investigate the events of 24 November 2021, when at least 27 migrants lost their lives crossing the English Channel. The Inquiry chair is Sir Ross Cranston, a former High Court Judge. The Inquiry is of national significance, given the significant amount of political, press and public interest into the recent phenomenon of migrant small boat crossings of the Channel.
• Forbury Gardens Terrorist Attack Inquests (Central Criminal Court, January to April 2024) – Jack was sole counsel for South Central Ambulance Service (the NHS emergency medical service for southern England) in the high-profile inquests into the well-publicised 2020 terrorist attack in Reading. The case was of national significance, with a Court of Appeal judge (Sir Adrian Fulford) appointed as Judge Coroner. Multiple state agencies were involved, with a focus on the preventability of the attacks and the effectiveness of the emergency service response.
• Inquest into the death of F Ospina (West London Coroner’s Court, October 2024) – A high-profile 2 week jury inquest concerning the death of a Colombian national detained at Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre. Jack acted for the operators of the Centre.
• Inquest into the death of I Malka (Birmingham Coroner’s Court, September 2022) – A two-week jury inquest into a work at height fatality, involving a collision between an overhead crane and an elevated work platform during the construction of a testing facility at the University of Birmingham. Jack acted for the Principal Contractor, the national construction and engineering company Balfour Beatty.
• Inquest into the death of N Saunders – (Reading Coroners’ Court, November – December 2022) – A 3-week jury inquest that gained national media attention, it involved a death during ambulance transport due to cocaine-toxicity and the associated phenomenon of ‘Acute Behavioural Disturbance’ (or ‘ABD’) following over 1 hour of restraint in handcuffs by the police. Jack acted for South Central Ambulance Service.
• J Barnes Inquest (Manchester City Coroner’s Court, February 2021) – Acting for the former operators of the Manchester Metrolink tram system in a sensitive, well-publicised inquest involving the death of a young man following a cardiac arrest, suffered during a contentious physical restraint performed on him by four Metrolink contractors in central Manchester. This was one of the first cases concerned with unlawful killing and the lowered standard of proof following Maughan.

News

• James Maxwell-Scott KC and Jack Murphy represent the Maritime and Coastguard Agency at The Cranston Inquiry
• Simon Antrobus KC and Jack Murphy represent a “VLO” Construction Company sentenced to a fine of £285,000 in relation to an accident involving one fatality and another serious injury

Read more

Events

• Criminal Regulatory Manchester Seminar
• Criminal Regulatory & Environmental Manchester Drinks Party

Articles

• The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 – The Road To Life Imprisonment? By Katie Sage and Jack Murphy

Qualifications

• Lincoln’s Inn Denning, Bowen & Hardwicke Scholarships
• BPTC, City Law School
• GDL, City University
• BA Hons (Oxon)