No Further Action for Man Accused of Assisted Suicide

Case study summary

Our client was interviewed in relation to his brother's death. He was accused of assisting his suicide by obtaining medication used in the suicide. We advanced a carefully written statement in his interview and the police decided to take no further action.

Case study

Our client was a family man accused of assisting his brother and sister in law in their attempted suicide pact. Tragically, our client's brother passed away but his partner lived. In her police interview, she accused our client of creating a Bitcoin account and sourcing medication such as morphine on the internet - this was the same medication which was used by our client's brother to end his life.

Our client had never been involved with the police before and he was quite obviously grieving the loss of his brother. He instructed us to represent him in the police interview and it became clear from the outset that this case required particularly careful handling, both with the client and the police officers.

After careful consideration, we decided to advance our client's denial in the form of a carefully crafted prepared statement. We remained in close contact with the specialist detectives handling the investigation and eventually a report was submitted to the coroner confirming that there is no case to answer for our client. The coroner agreed and this investigation went no further.

This was a sad set of circumstances which meant that our client could not properly grieve until the investigation was concluded. He was particularly grateful for our assistance.