My friend Keith Lomax, who has died aged 75, was a tenacious, talented and principled human rights lawyer whose court victories often benefited not only those he directly represented, but thousands more.
His success in Connors v United Kingdom in the European court of human rights (ECHR) in 2004 led to UK legislation giving Gypsies and Travellers living on local authority-run sites security of tenure. In 2007 the Labour government allocated £150m to improve medical help for vulnerable people in custody. It followed Keith’s victory in the ECHR representing the family of Judith McGlinchey, who died in prison after medical staff failed to monitor her drug withdrawal symptoms. From 2006 to 2011, Keith defended against eviction Travellers living on the Dale Farm site in Essex. He was declared legal aid lawyer of the year by the Legal Aid Practitioners’ Group in 2017.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.