Hard Cases Making Bad Law?

The Solicitor General said: 'Having considered the application, I have given consent to the family of Carole Myers to apply to the High Court for a new inquest into her death.

'I am satisfied that it is in the interests of justice for the application for a new inquest to be heard by the High Court.'

Really? Wouldn't you have to first change the law?

Mr Felstead said that by not ruling that these memories were false the court left 'a lingering doubt, a lingering suspicion that these things are true, and our position is that they are categorically not'.

'There was a 15-month investigation and it concluded that she was not abused, she was not sexually assaulted. It was a myth,' he said.

'Carol went to the doctor with a persistent headache.

'There was nothing wrong with Carol before she had therapy.

'All of her problems came from her having therapy.'

You're asking the coroner to do something I don't think they are able to do. They've certainly done as much as they possibly can within the limits of their remit:

During the previous inquest in 2015, Mr Felstead told Westminster Coroner's Court, which was sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice, that her family 'fiercely' contest the allegations.

Addressing the court, Mr Felstead said: 'I just want to ask that the court acknowledges that Carol developed false memories.

'She had treatment and memories that were false and demonstrably not true.'

Coroner Fiona Wilcox said she could not rule that Ms Myers suffered from false memories, but acknowledged that the 'extreme allegations that were made of satanic sexual abuse and murder were investigated and found to be absolutely unsubstantiated'.

She added: 'I wish to be clear that the family absolutely protest claims that Carol was abused sexually, and that the allegations of satanic sexual abuse and murder that she made in life were investigated by police and found to be unsubstantiated.'

I have nothing but sympathy with the family, but what they are asking for is not possible, and they have been told that.

Compare and contrast this with the easy allegations that are made over historical sex abuse. It's a bugger's muddle, and no mistake.