Sinéad O’Connor died of natural causes, says London coroner

The coroner’s office investigating the death of Sinéad O’Connor in London last year says she died of “natural causes”.

Southwark Coroners Court, which has been examining the circumstances of the singer’s death since the discovery of her body in a flat near Brixton last July, said it has “ceased involvement in her death”, suggesting it will not open a public inquest.

O’Connor, who was 56, was found dead by Metropolitan Police officers in her penthouse apartment in the Loughborough building just off Coldharbour Lane, a trendy area of the southeast London enclave of Herne Hill, near Brixton.

She had been living in London for just a few weeks before her death, which came 18 months after the death of her son, Shane, who died by suicide in January 2022. Ms O’Connor announced his death at the time, describing him as the “light of my life, the lamp of my soul”.

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The coroner’s office said it would make no further comment, and referred all further inquiries to officials at Lambeth, the borough where she died.

While there is no formal definition of natural causes in the UK, it is understood to exclude any significant element of human intervention in the death.

According to terms used by the UK’s ministry of justice and its Office for National Statistics, the term “natural causes” is used to refer to “any death of a person because of a naturally occurring disease process”.

A House of Commons briefing paper on coroner investigations also states that a coroner cannot close a case “if they suspect that the deceased died a violent or unnatural death”.

A coroner in England may discontinue an investigation without an inquest where they do not suspect a violent or unnatural death.

O’Connor’s death last summer led to an outpouring of grief and tributes in Ireland and across the world. There were vigils held in cities including Dublin and London, where members of the Irish community gathered in large numbers to mourn her death.

The day after she died, hundreds of people attended an event at the London Irish Centre in Camden, where acts including harpist Lisa Canny delivered tributes.

Thousands of people later turned out to pay tributes to her coffin on the streets of Bray, Co Wicklow, where she had lived for many years, on the day of her funeral in early August. She was then buried in a private Islamic ceremony.

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