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  1. About us
  2. Our people
  3. Staff

Staff team

INQUEST has a small team of full-time and part time staff as well as a number of volunteers and interns who help us with our work. If you'd like to join our team see work for us. 

Deborah Coles

Executive Director

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Deborah is the executive director of INQUEST, and has worked for the charity since 1989. She has a long track record of championing social justice and equality issues.  She leads INQUEST's strategic policy, legal and parliamentary work and has considerable expertise in working to prevent death and ill treatment in all forms of detention and for more effective accountable learning after state related deaths.  She has been an independent expert advisor to numerous committees and inquiries and was the special advisor to Dame Elish Angiolini, the chair of the Independent Review of Deaths and Serious Incidents in Police Custody.

Deborah is a regular media commentator, delivers conference papers nationally and internationally and is author of numerous articles and publications. She represents INQUEST as a member of the Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody and is a member of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody; she is also on the board of trustees of Clean Break Theatre Company and an advisor to Women in Prison.

Published: 29th January, 2017

Updated: 22nd January, 2021

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Arnaud Vervoitte

Operations and Development Director

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Arnaud joined INQUEST in 2017. Born in France, he came to the UK in 1993 and graduated in politics, global politics and race relations. Arnaud has worked in social care since 1995, in a variety of roles, including casework and support work and, later on, in management and leadership positions in the charity sector. He worked in HIV/AIDS for eight years and with asylum seekers and refugees for 12 and has also been the managing director of Just for Kids Law, a legal charity supporting young people. Arnaud is a passionate campaigner on social justice issues, including anti-racism and the rights of refugees and migrants. He is a Trustee of the Separated Child Foundation.

Published: 30th January, 2017

Updated: 23rd January, 2020

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Louise Finer

Head of Policy

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Louise came to INQUEST from HM Inspectorate of Prisons where she worked as Head of Secretariat for the National Preventive Mechanism. Louise worked with 21 independent detention monitoring and inspection bodies around the UK to strengthen their efforts to meet international obligations for preventing the ill treatment of detainees. For HMIP she also developed policy and parliamentary work and advised on human rights. Prior to these roles Louise worked in international NGOs, including Amnesty International and the Centre for Reproductive Rights, in a range of research and advocacy roles. Louise spent several years living and working in South America, working with human rights organisations and supporting the prisons team of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Louise is a visiting fellow at the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex.

Published: 1st February, 2017

Updated: 20th May, 2020

Author: Deleted User

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Anita Sharma

Head of Casework

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Anita joined INQUEST as a caseworker in October 2010. Her interest in human rights and social justice led her to work as a legal advisor at the Coventry Law Centre for six years, while also volunteering at a women’s refuge. Anita then spent some time travelling before working as a special educational needs (SEN) teaching assistant in a secondary school. Prior to joining INQUEST, Anita worked at Refugee and Migrant Justice for ten years as a caseworker and team leader, supporting clients through the asylum process.

Published: 12th March, 2017

Updated: 28th January, 2021

Author: Laura Smith

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Lucy McKay

Senior Media and Communications Officer (Interim)

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Lucy is a freelance communications and campaigns consultant, supporting small and grassroots organisations to push for social justice and change. She has worked with INQUEST since 2017 in various roles across communications, media and policy. With a background in journalism, Lucy has a degree in Sociology and Politics and was an editor and organiser at STRIKE! Magazine. It was through a 2014 STRIKE! campaign on policing that Lucy came across INQUEST. She previously worked as a policy officer at HM Inspectorate of Prisons and assisted in the co-ordination of the UK National Preventive Mechanism. She is also a trustee of the Independent Custody Visiting Association.

Published: 15th March, 2017

Updated: 28th January, 2021

Author: Laura Smith

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Natasha Thompson

Grenfell Project Coordinator and Senior Caseworker

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Natasha joined INQUEST as a volunteer in 2014, becoming a casework assistant the following year and a caseworker in 2016. She became interested in human rights law whilst studying law at university. Her interest in the legal process following a death in custody developed when she began following a number of individual and joint family campaigns like the United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC) and 4Wardeva. Through hearing the experience of families and friends affected and wanting to contribute she began following the work of INQUEST.

Published: 16th March, 2017

Updated: 20th April, 2020

Author: Laura Smith

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Selen Cavcav

Senior Caseworker

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Selen joined INQUEST as a caseworker in 2010. She was born in Turkey and lived there until 1990. She graduated in Sociology and Law and then worked at the Refugee Legal Centre for ten years, representing asylum seekers and refugees at Immigration Tribunals. Selen has a special focus on deaths of women in prison and is fully committed to women's issues. She is trustee of Imece Women’s Centre. She has two children and lives in North London. 

Published: 16th March, 2017

Updated: 22nd March, 2019

Author: Laura Smith

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Jasmine Leng

Senior Caseworker

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Jasmine joined INQUEST as a Senior Caseworker in February 2020. She has a master’s degree in Medical Law and Ethics and an undergraduate degree in Law. Whilst studying she became very aware of how people can be affected by poor care and poor access to information. She became a Community Advocate and an Independent Mental Capacity Advocate, then undertook the Bar Professional Training Course. In her previous role in Policy and Standards for a healthcare regulator, she undertook policy work to promote safe and effective healthcare. After supporting a close relative who was sectioned, Jasmine founded a charity to support young people in psychiatric hospitals. A combination of these experiences led to her interest in contributing to the work of INQUEST.

Published: 1st November, 2017

Updated: 20th May, 2020

Author: Lucy McKay

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Bola Awogboro

Caseworker

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Bola joined the INQUEST team in October 2017, originally as casework assistant, becoming a caseworker in March 2018. After studying the Graduate Diploma in Law she gained experience with The Poppy Project and the Anti-Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit, supporting victims of trafficking in accessing legal advice. She became familiar with INQUEST having previously worked at Bhatt Murphy Solicitors in an administrative role. She has a particular interest in women’s rights and their engagement with the criminal justice system.

Published: 13th November, 2017

Updated: 22nd March, 2019

Author: Lucy McKay

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Tanya Karastoyanova

Finance Officer

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Tanya joined INQUEST as Finance Officer in June 2017. She holds an AAT Accounting Qualification (MAAT) and has previously worked for accountancy practices and SME businesses. Tanya is also currently working for Learning on Screen . She joined INQUEST as an opportunity to do finance work which supports social justice.

Published: 15th November, 2017

Updated: 24th May, 2019

Author: Lucy McKay

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Mo Mansfield

Family Participation Officer

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Mo Mansfield join INQUEST in April 2019. She is a community organiser, advocate and feminist campaigner for prison abolition. Mo has more than 15 years experience working in the voluntary sector in both front-line and management positions at organisations such as Women at WISH, Women In Prison and the Women’s Resource Centre. Much of her work has focused on providing independent support to criminalised women from a social justice perspective.

She is member of the Reclaim Justice Network; Reclaim Holloway; and is co-founder of the Holloway Prison Stories website. Mo was also part of the organising committee for Abolitionist Futures: the International Conference on Penal Abolition held in London in June 2018. Mo recently completed a MSc focused on improving services for people with personality disorders. She is also a Visiting Research Fellow with the Harm and Evidence Research Collaborative at the Open University

Published: 1st May, 2018

Updated: 10th April, 2019

Author: Deleted User

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Rob Styles

Casework and Administrative Assistant

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Rob joined INQUEST in 2011 and provides administrative support to the casework team, wider office, and to the INQUEST Lawyers Group. He is also a first point of contact for bereaved people getting in touch with INQUEST. He has previously worked in industry and as a paralegal in the field of human rights and is a committed trade unionist.

Published: 16th October, 2018

Updated: 20th May, 2020

Author: Laura Smith

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Claire Campbell

Policy and Research Assistant

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Having worked as a Research Assistant at INQUEST in 2012, Claire returned to the organisation in February 2018 and is now Policy and Research Assistant, working with the policy team. After graduating from London South Bank University with a degree in International Social Policy, she completed a masters in Criminal Justice Policy at London School of Economics. She has a particular interest in feminist and BAME perspectives of the criminal justice system.

Published: 1st November, 2018

Updated: 2nd September, 2019

Author: Deleted User

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Yohanah Rodney

Casework Assistant

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Yohanah joined INQUEST in 2018 as a Casework Volunteer. In the same year she became a Project Assistant working on the INQUEST Library Online and is currently a Casework Assistant.

She became interested in the inquest process, in particular actions against the police, after the death of a family friend in police custody. She has always had an interest in human rights law but officially started to look into at depth whilst studying law at University. As a volunteer at INQUEST her interests broadened, and she is looking to get more involved with deaths involving Children and Young People in Mental Health settings.

Published: 16th April, 2019

Author: Deleted User

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Jodie Anderson

Caseworker

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Jodie joined INQUEST as a Caseworker in June 2020. Prior to this, she practiced as a criminal defence barrister at Garden Court Chambers and then in police complaints at Harrow Law Centre. She worked on death row in Texas in 2014 and has been involved in the criminal justice system ever since, with particular focus on youth justice and accountability. Jodie has followed INQUEST's work throughout her career, but became particularly invested following the death of a family member in prison. She is an active campaigner for refugee and migrant rights and volunteered as a lawyer in the Greek refugee camps in 2018.

Published: 15th June, 2020

Author: Deleted User

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Nancy Kelehar

Caseworker

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Nancy is an INQUEST Caseworker. She previously worked as a paralegal at Hickman & Rose, assisting clients in relation to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry as well as working on inquests and other actions against state bodies. She studied Law at the University of Leeds, where she founded an initiative to help female law students build connections with successful women in the legal sector. As a volunteer at a homeless shelter, she is passionate about working with marginalised groups and helping vulnerable people access their rights.

Published: 28th January, 2021

Author: Lucy McKay

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Raekha Prasad

Research and Policy Officer

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Raekha Prasad is a research and policy officer at INQUEST with a specialist focus on state violence and structural racism.

Raekha has worked as a journalist specialising in social rights issues for over two decades. She edited the women’s page in the Guardian and broke a number of stories on race, asylum, the criminal justice system and welfare rights. She was part of the Guardian/London School of Economics Reading the Riots project.

She began her career at The Big Issue and spent five years as a foreign correspondent in Asia working for The Guardian, The Times and the BBC where she focused on gender discrimination, child labour and climate change. She is also a lecturer in journalism at Goldsmiths University.

Published: 28th January, 2021

Author: Lucy McKay

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Showing 10 of 17

Latest

  • INQUEST highlight the crucial role of the Human Rights Act in investigating deaths and achieving justice

    INQUEST highlight the crucial role of the Human Rights Act in investigating deaths and achieving justice

    1 April 2021

  • Inquest into death of Cristian Vallejo explores home leave and care of mental health home treatment team in North London

    Inquest into death of Cristian Vallejo explores home leave and care of mental health home treatment team in North London

    1 April 2021

  • Coroner criticises Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust over death of carpenter Roy Morris

    Coroner criticises Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust over death of carpenter Roy Morris

    26 March 2021

  • Leon Briggs - family statement

    Leon Briggs - family statement

Most read

  • Jury finds series of failings contributed to self-inflicted death of 22-year-old woman on mental health ward

    Jury finds series of failings contributed to self-inflicted death of 22-year-old woman on mental health ward

    25 July 2018

  • Deaths in police custody

    Deaths in police custody

  • Deaths in prison

    Deaths in prison

  • About INQUEST

    About INQUEST

    INQUEST is the only charity providing expertise on state related deaths and their investigation to bereaved people, lawyers, advice and support agencies, the media and parliamentarians.

  • Work for us

    Work for us

    INQUEST is currently recruiting a Senior Policy and Parliamentary Officer

  • Family of Gaia Pope call for answers as the IOPC announce investigation into Dorset Police following the death of the missing teenager

    Family of Gaia Pope call for answers as the IOPC announce investigation into Dorset Police following the death of the missing teenager

    6 April 2018

  • Help and advice

    Help and advice

    We provide free and independent advice to bereaved people following a death in state care or detention in England and Wales, and in other cases where wider issues of state and corporate accountability are in question.

  • Useful resources

    Useful resources

    INQUEST has produced two invaluable resources for families and friends going through an inquest, and for those who would like to know more about their rights following a death.

  • Coroner concludes care of Oliver McGowan was ‘appropriate’ despite parents pleas not to use medication which led to the teenagers death

    Coroner concludes care of Oliver McGowan was ‘appropriate’ despite parents pleas not to use medication which led to the teenagers death

    20 April 2018

  • BAME deaths in police custody

Tag cloud

Adam Rickwood Blair Peach Dennis Stevens Hassockfield Hassockfield Secure Training Centre inquest mental health Met met police metropolitan police police restraint rashan charles restraint Roger Sylvester Sean Rigg Shiji Lapite
Now or Never! Legal aid for inquests

Now or Never! Legal aid for inquests

Join the campaign demanding automatic non means tested funding for legal representation following state related deaths. #LegalAidForInquests Read more

Published: 26th February, 2019

Updated: 18th February, 2021

Author: Lucy McKay

Latest tweet

  • Cristian Vallejo's partner described him as a loving and kind person and keen Cumbia dancer. He died whilst on le… https://t.co/roidZqyy88

    9thApril, 2021 @inquest_org
  • The coroner said the teenager’s experience travelling from Eritrea and arriving in England by lorry had had a profo… https://t.co/Bb8HXkDWsg

    9thApril, 2021 @inquest_org
  • Mulubrhane Medhane Kfleyosus, 19, was the fourth from his friendship group of Eritrean refugees to take his own lif… https://t.co/r4ekpz4FJg

    9thApril, 2021 @inquest_org

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INQUEST
3rd Floor
89-93 Fonthill Road
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N4 3JH

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tel: 020 7263 1111

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INQUEST covers England and Wales. Charitable Trust Registered Charity No. 1046650. Registered Company No. 03054853