Stardust inquest: Being told what loved one's life was worth added 'insult to injury'

Inquest heard pen portraits from families of Paula Lewis and Donna Mahon, 17

A poster featuring the faces of all 48 Stardust victims on the wall of the courtroom at the Rotunda Hospital, where the inquest is taking place. Picture: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

The grief of losing a loved one in the Stardust fire was "unbearable", while being told what that person’s life was worth and how to avoid getting involved in a legal system that excluded most working-class people added “insult to injury”, a brother of one of the victims has told the Coroner's Court.

John Lewis, whose sister Paula was one of 48 people killed in the blaze that swept through the Stardust nightclub in the early hours of February 14, 1981, delivered a pen portrait of Paula on Wednesday before the inquest at Dublin’s Coroner’s Court, in which he said their family would never have closure even four decades after her death.