Mother Of Vulnerable Man Aims To Hold Ministry of Justice To Account In Murder Case

Hodge Jones & Allen is representing the mother of a vulnerable man drowned by a high-risk criminal offender who removed his own electronic tag. Sam Nicholls, mother of Joe Pooley, is taking legal action against the Ministry of Justice for alleged failures in upholding her human rights.

As exclusively featured in The Sunday Mirror, a coroner has heard that Sebastian Smith, previously known as Luke Greenland, was already considered a high risk to others when he killed Joe Pooley, 22. That Smith was in fact not in prison at the time of the murder is the subject of a human rights case which Hodge Jones & Allen is now assisting Joe’s mother with.

Smith, who was previously imprisoned for assaulting a police officer, was on home curfew but an inquest heard he should have been recalled to prison for removing his electronic tag.

He helped lure Joe, who had suspected attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Asperger’s and autism, from his home and supplied him with alcohol and drugs.

Sebastian Smith and Sean Palmer – aged 35 and 31 at the time – were spurred on by one Becki West-Davidson, then 30, to take ‘revenge’ against Joe. West-Davidson apparently felt slighted by remarks made by Joe when she made it clear she was not interested in taking up a romantic relationship with him.

West-Davidson plotted for Smith and Palmer to throw Joe into the River Gipping in Ipswich, Suffolk, and hold him under water in August 2018. In 2021, all three individuals were jailed for murder.

In 2022, a coroner said Smith being at large “more than minimally, negligibly or trivially contributed to his [Joe’s] death”. Hodge Jones & Allen is now helping Joe’s mother, Sam Nicholls, 54, in taking legal action against the Ministry of Justice, accusing them of breaching her human rights. According to the exclusive Sunday Mirror story, Sam said: “My son was horrifically failed by the MoJ, I want them to accept some responsibility and apologise.”

Sarah Flanagan, an Associate in the Civil Liberties and Human Rights team at Hodge Jones & Allen Solicitors, commented on the legal action: “It is abundantly clear a catalogue of errors by the MoJ resulted in a failure to recall Greenland despite him being a danger to the public. “We’re determined to hold the MoJ to account.” At the time of writing The Sunday Mirror has approached the Ministry of Justice for comment.

Sarah Flanagan’s main area of practice is in claims against the police and other public authorities, including civil actions for assault, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, discrimination and breach of the Human Rights. Sarah is particularly interested in youth justice and cases involving the mistreatment of vulnerable individuals. You can read more about how Sarah assists other clients in human rights related claims here.