Practice Areas
Associate, Actions against Police and State.
Rachel works on a wide range of claims including false imprisonment, assault, malicious prosecution, misfeasance in public office, discrimination, misuse of private information and breaches of the Human Rights Act and Data Protection Act.
She regularly represents bereaved families during inquests and other related proceedings where individuals have died whilst in police custody or under the care of mental health services.
Rachel has expertise in bringing urgent judicial review challenges on behalf of individuals who are being detained under immigration powers and facing removal from the UK and she often represents vulnerable adults who are victims of torture and trafficking.
Rachel also has a particular interest in asserting individuals’ rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly under Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Career
Rachel joined Bindmans in March 2014 as a paralegal, and qualified as a solicitor in March 2017.
Inquest and public inquiries
Acting for bereaved families in the ongoing Lampard Public Inquiry, investigating the deaths of over 2,000 people, who were mental health inpatients in Essex. The first public inquiry into mental health services that has ever been held in England.
Represents the mother and step-father of 15 year old trans teen Jason Pulman in proceedings arising from his self inflicted death in East Sussex. The inquest jury found systemic and operational failures by all organisations involved in his care, with the exception of his school, and that Sussex Police responded inadequately to the family’s missing persons report.
Acted for Morgan-Rose’s mother in inquest proceedings arising from 18 year old Morgan-Rose’s death, who died whilst she was an inpatient at the Derwent Centre, an Essex mental health hospital. The inquest jury concluded that Morgan-Rose died as a result of neglect, identifying gross failures by the hospital staff to provide basic medical care.
Represented the family of 19 year old Christopher Nota in proceedings arising from his death on 8 July 2020, whilst he was under the care of Essex mental health services. The Coroner identified multiple significant failures in his care contributed to his death. Essex Partnership University Trust (EPUT) provided the family with formal apologies for the trust’s shortcomings and the inadequate standard of care provided to Chris after successful conclusion of the family’s civil claims.
Represented the family of Leroy ‘Junior’ Medford in proceedings after Junior died in a Thames Valley Police Station on 2 April 2017. The inquest jury returned a highly critical narrative conclusion identifying individual and systemic failures. Thames Valley Police formally admitted liability for his death after civil claims were brought by the family and they apologised to the family for his “avoidable” death.
Represented the family of 19 year old Sophie Bennett throughout inquest, criminal and civil proceedings arising from her death in 2016 at Lancaster Lodge, a care facility ran by charity Richmond Psychosocial International Foundation. The inquest concluded with a finding of neglect and highly critical narrative. Successful submissions to the coroner about key witness, who had failed to attend the inquest, resulted in the Crown Prosecution Service in the first known prosecution of an offence of “withholding evidence or documentation in relation to a coroner’s inquest” and the witness was subsequently convicted with a four month custodial sentence. The CQC also later successfully prosecuted the care home and care manager responsible for Sophie’s care.
Acted throughout investigations and inquest proceedings for the father of Neal Saunders, who died on 4 September 2020, following prolonged restraint by Thames Valley police officers.
Part of the Bindmans LLP’s Hillsborough Team which acted in the Hillsborough Inquest, concluding on 26 April 2016, with the jury finding that 96 victims were unlawfully killed during the Hillsborough disaster.
Civil Claims
Represented Patsy Stevenson and Dania Al-Obeid in successful civil claims against the Metropolitan Police arising from their policing of the Clapham Common Vigil for Sarah Everard. Together with making payments of damages, the Metropolitan Police force issued an apology.
Represented Julian Cole who was left brain damaged and paralysed for life after Bedfordshire police officers restrained him outside a nightclub in 2013. Acted for him throughout an IOPC investigation, which resulted in disciplinary proceedings being brought against Bedfordshire police officers, ending with three of them being dismissed in 2018 for gross misconduct. Civil proceedings resulted in successful civil claims for substantial damages, concluding in 2024.
Acted for a child in a challenge to the CPS for their delayed charging decision and successful civil claims against the Metropolitan Police Service arising from their investigative conduct and failures in a criminal investigation into sexual offences committed against the child when he was 12 years old.
Settled civil claims in a number of multi-claimant group litigations, including asylum seekers placed in unsuitable accommodation in Napier Barracks, Black Lives Matter protesters arrested in Westfield Shopping Centre, Anti-fascist protesters in Tower Hamlets and Extinction Rebellion protesters. Rachel is currently representing asylum seekers wrongly detained in Manston Processing Centre in civil claims against the Home Office.
Public law proceedings
Represented the Coalition of Anti-Racist Educators and Black Educators Alliance in a successful legal challenge of the Secretary of State for Education’s new guidance which would have restricted teachers from using teaching materials originating from groups including Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion.
Acted for a young asylum seeker, stranded in a Greek refugee camp, in a successful challenge of the Home Office’s rejection of his family reunion application to join his brother, a refugee in the UK.
Represented several individuals detained in immigration removal centres during the 2020 covid pandemic in successful urgent applications for judicial reviews of their detentions, including R (on the application of Zalys) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] 4 WLUK 86. All were released and they each obtained compensation in subsequent civil claims.
Acted for National Union of Journalists member, Andy Aitchison, in a successful challenge of Kent Police’s decisions to search his home, arrest him, detain him, seize his property and then issue him with a Fixed Penalty Notice.
