Justice for Windrush victim Dexter Bristol
Justice for Windrush victim Dexter Bristol
Latest: Sept. 11, 2019
I am still fighting for justice for my son Dexter Bristol
We have launched a new campaign:
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/justice-for-dexter-bristol-stage-two/
Please donate what you can and share this page!
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READ MORE BELOW:
Dear supporter,
Thank you…
Read moreI am fighting to seek justice for my son Dexter Bristol, a child of the Windrush generation, who died this March, following a year of being rejected as a British citizen and struggling to prove to the Home Office his right to live and work in the UK.
On 29 March 2018, my son, Dexter Bristol collapsed in the street outside his home and died. I believe that the stress and anxiety that Dexter experienced in the year before his death contributed to his death. I have asked the Coroner to look into this wider issue and I am raising funds to cover the legal costs of the case: please contribute and share this page.
I am a Windrush migrant. I worked as a nurse for the NHS for 30 years after which I became a foster mother. In 1968, when Dexter was 8, I brought him from Grenada to come and live with me in the United Kingdom. He spent the rest of his life in the UK. Dexter never returned to Grenada and felt he was British.
His right to live in the UK was never questioned until May last year when Dexter told me that his employer said he could no longer employ him if he couldn’t show him he had a right to live in the UK. Dexter was very upset when he discovered he didn’t have a British passport.
Dexter, along with thousands of other Windrush migrants and their children, was caught by the ‘hostile’ environment that the Home Office policies had created for all immigrants, especially since 2012.
Dexter spent the last year of his life, with my help, trying to prove that he had a right to be here. During this time, I saw Dexter becoming increasingly frustrated, stressed, and depressed.
After nearly a year of searching, his solicitor was making some progress in the week before his death. She wrote to him on Thursday before Good Friday to say: we are going to fight this and we are going to win this. But Dexter died before he got that letter.
I brought Dexter to live in the United Kingdom when he was a child and a British subject. I never expected that his right to live here would be questioned nearly 50 years later. Since his death, the Prime Minister Theresa May apologised to all Windrush migrants for the anxiety caused by the Home Office threatening the children of Commonwealth citizens with deportation. Mrs May said, “The UK government "valued" the contribution they had made, and they had a right to stay in the UK.”
How much do we need to raise and why?
An inquest into Dexter’s death was opened at Poplar Coroner’s Court on 5 April and adjourned to a later date to be announced. I want to be represented at the inquest so that I can have someone to ask questions about the stress Dexter experienced in the year leading up to his death when he was told he had to prove he had a right to be in the UK. I want to ask the Coroner to consider whether this stress may have contributed to his death.
I am a retired NHS nurse and not well off, and need £3,000 to enable my legal team to represent me at the inquest into the death of Dexter. I am not eligible for legal aid for the inquest hearing.
How can you help
Please contribute what you can – everything makes a difference.
Thank you for your support and for helping me make this campaign a success. I can’t do it without you.
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Sentina D’Artanyan-Bristol
Sept. 11, 2019
I am still fighting for justice for my son Dexter Bristol
We have launched a new campaign:
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/justice-for-dexter-bristol-stage-two/
Please donate what you can and share this page!
***
READ MORE BELOW:
Dear supporter,
Thank you so much for supporting my fight to seek justice for my son Dexter Bristol.
Your financial support allowed me to be represented at the inquest into my son’s death last year, which I am very grateful for.
Sadly, the inquest didn’t go as I had hoped, and the questions I had then about the stress that Dexter was under because of the Home Office’s hostile environment policies remain unanswered 18 months after his death.
I am therefore contacting you to thank you for all of your support in my fight seeking justice for Dexter, and to ask for your assistance again to raise funds to enable my legal team to represent me at the second inquest, so that a full and fearless investigation can be conducted.
Update since the last campaign
The first inquest into Dexter’s death was concluded on 28 August 2018. Before it was concluded, I felt that I had no option but to walk out of the inquest after Assistant Coroner Dolman ruled that he would not invite the Home Office to be represented at the inquest despite my concerns of the effect on Dexter, of the Home Office’s hostile environment policies and he refused to look at the cardiologist report who gave the opinion that the stress of these policies contributed to Dexter’s death.
After I left, the Assistant Coroner concluded the inquest in half a day, instead of 2 days, and found that Dexter had died of natural causes. He made no comment about the fact that Dexter has spent the last 18 months of his life under great the stress of fearing he would be deported from the UK to country he hadn’t visited since he was 8.
The Assistant Coroner’s behaviour towards me and my barrister during the inquest hearing was also deeply upsetting. I found his conduct intimidating, bullying, and disrespectful, and I therefore submitted a complaint about his behaviour to the Judicial Conduct in August that the Assistant Coroner had resigned, hence no disciplinary action could be taken against him.
After the travesty of the first inquest, I sought to quash the conclusion and have a fresh inquest by bringing a judicial review of the Assistant Coroner. After my JR claim was lodged in November 2018, the Assistant Coroner indicated that he would not be contesting the claim, and so I succeed in obtaining an Order from the Court quashing his inquest conclusion and ordering that there be a fresh investigation before a different Coroner.
The second inquest into Dexter’s death will now be held from 7th – 10th October 2019.
This time, the Home Office is a party to the inquest and the new Coroner will call the cardiologist to hear his evidence about how stress contributed to Dexter’s death. I am therefore more hopeful that the questions I have about the stress that Dexter was under because of the Home Office’s hostile environment policies will finally be answered.
However, I have been told by the Legal Aid Agency that I am not eligible for funding for the inquest hearing as Dexter’s death wasn’t directly caused by a Government official, but by a Government policy.
I am therefore contacting you to ask for your assistance again to raise funds to enable my legal team to represent me at the second inquest.
You can do this by:
1. Pledge any amount you can: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/justice-for-dexter-bristol-stage-two/
2. Share the campaign on your social media networks and email your contacts asking them to pledge and share: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/justice-for-dexter-bristol-stage-two/
I believe this inquest will be important for thousands of members of the Windrush Generation who have been affected by the “hostile policies”, many of whom have suffered enormous stress, the long term harmful effect of which I believe, the Home Office still hasn’t properly appreciated.
Thanks again for all that you’ve done.
Kind regards,
Sentina D’Artanyan-Bristol
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