Good Law Project forces new inquest into trans death

Content warning: suicide

When a trans man died by suicide, the coroner issued a death certificate that said he was a woman. Following legal action from Good Law Project, there will be a new inquest – with a new coroner.

Aiden Longmuir took his own life in May 2025, when he was 20 years old. He had been on the waiting list for the Tavistock gender identity clinic since 2021. Although he had never received any gender affirming care, he had been living as a man since he was 12, and appeared as male in all his medical and financial records.

Three days after he died, Woking Coroner’s Court got in touch with Aiden’s family about an inquest into his death. The family asked for his death certificate to list him as a man, and were told that this would be at the coroner’s discretion.

Despite repeated attempts to find out what the coroner would decide, when the assistant coroner opened the hearing on 24 October, the family still didn’t know how this vital question would be resolved.

At the hearing, the coroner said that she had to make “findings of fact for the purpose of registration”. Citing the Supreme Court decision on the definition of sex under the Equality Act, she found that “biologically the body was that of a female”.

But the law governing the registration of deaths doesn’t define “sex”. And the Supreme Court judgment doesn’t say anything about how sex should be defined on death certificates.

The coroner’s decision also runs directly against guidance the chief coroner issued in June 2025, which says that “if after making enquiries a coroner concludes a person has chosen to present as male then the coroner can regard them as male”. It would be clear, even in the most basic of enquiries, that Aiden was presenting and living as male. 

When the family stood up to the coroner, quoting this guidance, she said that it was “at odds with how I interpret the law”.

Even though the family told her how hard Aiden fought to be accepted, and that recording him as a woman would be “like spitting in his face”, the coroner issued a death certificate calling him “female”.

When the family reached out to Good Law Project for help, we worked with Leigh Day to prepare a legal challenge to this decision. We wrote to Surrey County Council setting out the law around registering deaths, explaining how this decision could be in breach of Aiden’s right to a private life, and laying out other issues with the inquest that could make it unlawful.

Even though the family only received all the documents just seven days before the inquest was held, the coroner refused to delay. She didn’t hold a pre-inquest review hearing and refused to call witnesses. She also rejected any investigation of the wider circumstances leading up to Aiden’s death, including failures in mental health provision and  delays in gender healthcare which could have prevented this tragedy.

The coroner has now agreed to quash the inquest, saying that a new inquest will be held before a different coroner. This inquest will consider Aiden’s’s death again, including the question of how he should be recorded on his death certificate.

According to Leigh Day’s Kate Egerton, this case “highlights the importance of dignity and respect for trans individuals”.

“We welcome the decision to hold a new inquest,” Egerton said, “and sincerely hope that Aiden’s family will finally be heard.”

For Cat Knight, deputy head of legal at Good Law Project, this case shows how we can “provide a voice for trans people when they can no longer be heard”.

“No family should have to battle for their loved one to be officially recorded in death as they were in life,” Knight said. “Ignoring a family’s wishes distracts from the important work of finding out how someone died, and only adds to the trauma of their darkest hour.”

Good Law Project will support the family with the costs of the new inquest and will be following it very closely. And if coroners fail to respect trans people, we won’t fail to challenge them.

• This article was altered on 30 March 2026 to give additional details about Aiden and the problems with the initial inquest into his death.