Ezekiel Clarke: Stabbed boy's injuries not survivable, says coroner

Ezekiel Clarke was described by his mum as a "happy-go-lucky young man loving life"

A 17-year-old who was stabbed through the heart in the street died despite receiving "an extremely high standard of care", an inquest has found.

Ezekiel Clarke was attacked in February 2020 in the Radford area of Nottingham.

Nottingham Coroner's Court heard an emergency procedure was carried out on the roadside instead of at hospital.

A 16-year-old boy was found guilty of murder but a 19-year-old man had his manslaughter conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal.

Emergency services were on the scene minutes after receiving 999 calls, the inquest heard

The inquest heard Mr Clarke was confronted in Churchfield Lane on 19 February 2020 and suffered two stab wounds.

One wound damaged his heart and liver, with the other injuring his arm and lung.

A witness called 999 at 19:06 GMT, with East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) arriving three minutes later.

Mr Clarke went into cardiac arrest at 19:12, and after being put in an ambulance to be taken to the major trauma unit at Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre (QMC) a team from The Air Ambulance Service (TAAS) arrived at 19:23.

He was taken out of the ambulance so a doctor could perform a procedure known as resuscitative thoracotomy, where the chest is opened up, but he was pronounced dead at 19:32.

'Not survivable'

A cause of death was given as stab wounds to the chest, with the coroner recording a conclusion of unlawful killing.

Assistant coroner Elizabeth Didcock said the case was reviewed after concerns were raised in January regarding the pre-hospital treatment and case review processes.

She said EMAS staff "could not have worked any more quickly" to provide emergency life support, and following the thoracotomy "it was clear that further resuscitation was futile".

The doctor had the necessary expertise and equipment to undertake the thoracotomy away from a hospital, she said, adding guidelines on carrying out emergency procedure away from a major trauma centre "were followed".

"I am clear, as are all the senior doctors who have given evidence, that this was not a survivable injury," she said.

An independent expert who reviewed the case at the coroner's request also found all clinicians involved in Mr Clarke's case "provided an extremely high standard of care in difficult and stressful circumstances".

No prevention of future death order was made, but Dr Didcock welcomed reviews made by EMAS and TAAS on policies and procedures, including communication with staff at hospitals such as QMC.

She said she "would expect significant progress to be made" before another inquest into a resuscitative thoracotomy following a fatal stabbing next year.

Conviction quashed

During the inquest, it also emerged a manslaughter conviction following a trial last year had been quashed.

Jaheim Williams had been handed a seven-and-half year term in a young offenders institution, but this was overturned after the Court of Appeal reviewed the case in June.

The appeal court said there was "no evidence of malice towards Ezekiel Clarke" from Mr Williams, or that he knew his friend was carrying a knife, and found the trial judge's direction to the jury "unfairly indicated that the case against [him] was a strong one".

"It seems to us that at no stage at trial or subsequently have the prosecution satisfactorily established any act of Williams which is capable of amounting to assisting or encouraging the stabber," it said.

"The case should have been withdrawn from the jury at the close of the prosecution case."

An appeal against the murder conviction of the boy - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was rejected.