Raychel Ferguson Inquest: Call for coroner to recuse himself as inquest adjourned

There was a dramatic development at the inquest into the death of 9-year-old Raychel Ferguson when counsel for the next of kin applied for the Coroner, Joe McCrisken, to recuse himself.

Raychel died in 2001 after having her Appendix removed at Altnagelvin Hospital. 

He case was one of those considered by the Hyponatraemia Inquiry which was critical of many aspects of the care and treatment she had

At the beginning of today's proceedings John Coyle counsel for the family said he had an application for the Coroner to recuse himself. 

Mr Coyle said the application was based on 'bias and animus' against the family demonstrated by the Coroner.

The Coroner stopped Mr Coyle at this point to ascertain when the decision had been taken to make this application. 

Mr Coyle said that the Ferguson family had been 'utterly disquieted' at remarks made by Mr McCrisken yesterday and after considering the matter overnight they had decided to make the application this morning.

The Coroner asked the other interested parties when they were made aware of the application and was told this morning.

He asked for the application to be made in writing by 2pm today with responses by 5pm.

The Coroner said that he would hear oral submissions on Friday morning and give his ruling on Tuesday morning. 

The inquest was then adjourned. 

The remarks made by the Coroner came on Wednesday's sitting when he said that the family and others had been through a multi million pounds inquiry and it was hard to what would be discovered by the inquest that had not been discovered at the inquiry.