A GRIEVING mother who won a High Court battle for a fresh inquest into the death of her teenage son, who hanged himself in custody in a secure unit, has launched a fresh legal challenge to the coroner’s handling of the case.

Burnley mum Carol Pounder hopes to win a ruling that a judge should be appointed to conduct the second inquest, because of the issues it raises about unlawful use of physical restraint in young offender institutions.

Ms Pounder is seek-ing a ruling from Mr Justice Burnett that Her Majesty’s Coroner for the North and South Districts of Durham and Darl-ington was wrong not to remove himself from hearing the second inquest into the death of 14-year old Adam Rickwood.

Adam became the youngest person to die in custody in modern times when he hanged himself at the Hassockfield secure training centre in Consett, County Durham, in August 2004.

Ms Pounder also challenges Durham coroner Andrew Twe-ddle’s decision not to appoint a serving or retired Crown Court or High Court judge as an assistant deputy coroner to hear the inquest because of its importance.

Her counsel, Richard Hermer QC, told the High Court: “It is quite plain the fresh inquest is going to have to investi-gate complicated and prof-oundly important issues.

“The established facts demonstrate that Adam Rickwood died shortly after being unlawfully removed from association by adult staff, physically restrained, i.e. assaulted, by adult staff and deliberately subjected to a painful blow to his nose in purported compliance with a ‘distraction technique’ by adult staff.

“The fresh inquest will need to investigate the following key issues: Did the staff at Hassockfield, including its director, knowingly operate a system whereby children were regularly unlawfully restrained?

“Did the Youth Justice Board know that children at Hassock-field were being unlawfully restrained? Did the restraint contribute to Adam’s death?”

In January 2009, High Court judge Mr Justice Blake ruled that the coroner had, in the first inquest, wrongly failed to make a ruling on the legality of forci-ble restraint used on Adam hours before he committed suicide. He ruled the force was unlawful.

The hearing continues.