The coroner who slammed the British press over the suicide of transgender school teacher Lucy Meadows has been officially told he shouldn’t have made the comments by his boss.

Meadows killed herself on 19 March, aged 32, of carbon monoxide poisoning. She had been the subject of press criticism for transitioning while working at St Mary Magdalen’s Primary School, in Accrington, Lancashire, north west England.

Coroner Michael Singleton criticized ‘sensational and salacious’ reporting in recording a verdict of suicide at the inquest on 28 May.

In particular, he singled out the Daily Mail, where columnist Richard Littlejohn wrote of Meadows: ‘He’s not only in the wrong body… he’s in the wrong job.’

It emerged at the inquest Meadows had written to the Press Complaints Commission complaining about being harassed by the media, and citing the Littlejohn article.

Singleton said at the inquest: ‘To the members of the press, I say shame. Shame on all of you.’

He said he hoped journalists would write ‘sympathetic and sensitive’ reports of the inquest. But, he added: ‘I do not hold my breath.’

And he said: ‘Lucy Meadows was not somebody who had thrust herself into the public limelight. She was not a celebrity. She had done nothing wrong.

‘Her only crime was to be different. Not by choice but by some trick of nature. And yet the press saw fit to treat her in the way that they did.’

He also pledged to write to Culture Secretary Maria Miller urging the government to fully implement the recommendations of the Leveson Report into standards in the British press, which also highlighted trans discrimination as common.

But the inquest had actually heard that Meadows made no mention of press coverage in her suicide note.

And someone complained to the Office for Judicial Complaints about Singleton’s remarks.

Now the Daily Mail itself is reporting he has been given ‘informal advice’ by the Chief Coroner about his comments, including the fact he undertaken private research into the case.

But the complaint itself was dismissed.

Notably the Daily Mail’s own story today (2 August) doesn’t make any mention that they were considered to be the worst offenders, that Meadows’ death had sparked protests outside their office or that they had published articles from a trans journalist subsequently – apparently in an attempt to repair their image.

And in a move that is likely to be seen as insensitive by transgender people, the Telegraph report refers to gender Meadows’ previous name and uses a picture of her prior to transition.

Whether the coroner was right or wrong, transgender people still remain concerned about the media’s approach.

Helen Belcher of Trans Media Watch told Gay Star News: ‘While it does seem that reporting of trans issues has marginally improved since Lucy’s death, we remain concerned the press is simply biding its time rather than having learnt any lessons, and we haven’t seen very much engagement with the trans communities from most of the press since then.’