Maddy Cusack inquest will have to be heard via a jury, circle of relatives’s attorneys declare

A jury will have to be convened for the inquest into the demise of the previous Sheffield United midfielder Maddy Cusack because of the “significant public interest” within the case, her circle of relatives’s attorneys have stated.

Cusack died elderly 27 on 20 September, 2023 at her house in Derbyshire. Within every week of her demise her circle of relatives had submitted a written criticism to Sheffield United outlining problems allegedly stemming from her courting with the membership’s supervisor on the time, Jonathan Morgan.

Dean Armstrong KC, representing the circle of relatives, advised a pre-inquest evaluate listening to on Tuesday this was once a case that are supposed to be heard via a jury. He stated there was once a “clear” public pastime in analyzing the precise place of “young, vulnerable people” and their courting with the ones preserving senior positions in a wearing context.

“There continue to be significant differences between the men’s game and the women’s game in terms of resource and how people are dealt with,” he stated. “There is a significant public interest in examining how people conduct themselves within the women’s game towards what we say are vulnerable females such as Maddy.”

Jury inquests are ceaselessly required when a demise happens in protecting custody, and Armstrong stated: “I would draw the analogy of young, vulnerable women in football clubs in a climate of concern and fear. This is one of the first occasions in professional women’s football where these issues are being addressed. I would suggest there is a fundamental need to examine what was in place to protect those vulnerable women, where the impact felt of words and deeds is potentially much greater.”

Cusack’s prison workforce additionally referenced findings from an as-yet-unpublished Football Association document commissioned in January 2024 into the cases surrounding Cusack’s demise. They stated the document discovered the investigation had “shed light on the resourcing issues particularly acute in the women’s game and the related welfare and safeguarding issues that might arise”.

Armstrong stated: “[The] inability to report to the club contributed to Maddy’s deterioration. “There was no one to talk to, no adequate support system in place. That should be at the centre of these proceedings.”

The Cusack circle of relatives’s attorneys additionally made a request for a variety of further witnesses to be referred to as to look on the inquest. Maria Mulla, from Maitland Chambers, stated witnesses who had equipped testimony in previous investigations relating to Morgan’s alleged habits against Cusack and different gamers had been all “highly relevant” and “would enable the family to feel these matters are being explored fully, as they need to be”.

Morgan, who continues to constitute himself within the case, stated there were “a lot of manipulation of information” and stated some folks had no longer been spoken to or were “cast aside” as a result of their perspectives “didn’t meet the narrative of what’s been put out over the last 18 months”.

Coroner Sophie Cartwright referred to as for Sheffield United, the FA and Morgan to supply written submissions in line with the circle of relatives’s representatives’ requires a jury, a widening of the inquest scope and for added witnesses via 17 June. The circle of relatives’s representatives will then have an extra seven days to make observations on the ones submissions, with the coroner announcing she would make a decision on the ones issues via 1 July.

No date has been set for the inquest itself.