Johnny Santer has told MPs he was 're-traumatised' when his son Gabriel's inquest was scheduled for just two days before the family's first Christmas without him. Gabriel Santer, a Liverpool teenager, died in October 2020 after falling from a multi-storey car park in Liverpool city centre.
Johnny, from south Liverpool, is leading the Gabe's Law campaign, which calls for a law to make perimeter fencing at car parks around the country significantly higher and for more safety measures in these buildings. The ECHO is backing the campaign.
Evidence to the Justice Committee
This week, Mr Santer took the campaign to Parliament, speaking during a Justice Committee meeting focused on learning from inquests and the proposal for a national oversight mechanism to collate, track and follow up on lessons learned from inquests.
During his evidence, he described the moment his family were told when Gabriel's inquest would be opened following his death on October 3 2020. He told the committee: "Gabriel died a preventable death on October 3 2020. The original inquest was scheduled for December 23 - two days before the first Christmas without my son. That's when they wanted me to attend. There you have it."
Going into the process 'completely blind'
After the inquest was rescheduled, Johnny said he went into the process "completely blind" and did not have legal representation. He added: "Now knowing what I know and having sat through a very similar inquest, I know what an inquest is capable of doing, such as issuing a prevention of future death report."
The inquest he referred to was that of 21-year-old Liverpool man Josh Perry, who died after a fall from a multi-storey car park in the city centre in 2025. Josh's family were represented by barrister Christian Weaver at his inquest, who was introduced to the family by Johnny. The inquest resulted in the Coroner issuing a Prevention of Future Deaths Report raising concerns about existing building regulations concerning multi-storey car parks.
Campaign for higher fencing
Speaking in Parliament, Johnny added: "Having seen the barrister Christian Weaver represent Josh's family at his inquest, the difference was just worlds apart. The impact of not having a Prevention of Future Deaths report was huge really."
He told the committee of the Gabe's Law campaign, which seeks a change in the law to raise the minimum height of perimeter fences at multi-storey car parks from 1.1m to 2.7m. Mr Santer told the committee: "Gabriel fell from an edge perimeter on a multi-storey car park, that is currently mandated by building regulations to be just 1.1m. It seems almost insane that this issue hasn't been raised before. That prevention of future deaths should be a very powerful tool to focus the attention of the relevant authorities that there is an issue here about preventable deaths."
The national charity INQUEST is campaigning for a new National Oversight Mechanism to ensure that life-saving recommendations made following inquests and inquiries are acted on. The charity says that too often, the lessons learnt after deaths and disasters do not result in the required change.
