Paul Knapman

Paul Knapman DL was Her Majesty’s Coroner for Westminster (and Inner West London), from 1980 to 2011 (and Deputy Coroner from 1975-1980). His responsibility for investigating sudden deaths as an independent judicial officer saw him preside over numerous notable cases.

He was made a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London in 2008 and advanced to the representative Deputy Lieutenant for Westminster in 2013.

As coroner he dealt with approximately 85,000 deaths and 12,500 inquests (including about 500 murder/mansalughter cases). One of his last major cases (October 2010) was presiding over the inquest of the barrister Mark Saunders, controversially shot to death by Metropolitan Police on 6 May 2008. After the ruling of ‘lawful killing’ Knapman revealed that he would use his powers as coroner to highlight lessons that should be learned by the police for the future and would make copies of his recommendation available to Secretary of State for Justice, Kenneth Clarke.

He has an entry in Who's Who and Debrett's, the two-century-old guide to people of distinction and etiquette.

As the Deputy Coroner he was much involved with the preparation of the inquest into the death of Sandra Rivett, nanny to the children of Lord Lucan. He sat with the coroner during the inquest (November 16–19 June 1975), when the jury returned the verdict that Lord Lucan should stand trial at The Old Bailey charged with the murder of Sandra Rivett. Lord Lucan had disappeared and has never been found.

As Deputy Coroner he was consulted and involved in all stages following the death of Georgi Markov, who died on the 11th November 1978. Markov was a Bulgarian working for the BBC World Service and considered a thorn in the side of the Communist authorities. His cause of death was by a pellet probably containing ricin (which was never actually analysed). Although the press and others showed diagrams of the poison's administration by an umbrella, no umbrella was ever found.

At that time the US Embassy in Tehran was besieged by the Iranian Authorities with the American citizens working in the Embassy having been taken hostage. President Carter sanctioned a rescue by US forces, but the US helicopters unfortunately came down in the desert and the hostage rescue had to be abandoned. Subsequently, the Iranian Embassy in London was seized by six terrorists on the 30th April, and they shot one hostage. The Home Secretary, William Whitelaw, handed control of the situation from the Metropolitan Police to the British Army.

Then, it being a Bank holiday weekend, in the full blaze of publicity and live television, soldiers of the Special Air Service (SAS) successfully rescued the hostages on the 5th May. At the subsequent inquest the jury learnt that during the rescue another hostage was killed by a terrorist and five terrorists were shot and killed by the SAS. One terrorist survived. At the inquest the jury unanimously returned a verdict of justifiable homicide concerning the death of the terrorists.

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