Stories of chaos at West London Coroner's Court hit the news last night.

The Seaman family told us of their anguish at delays back in July.

Sally Seaman, a Teddington midwife was still waiting for an inquest into the death of her son Alex nearly a year after he died in September 2014.

Inquests should be held within six months of a death, except in exceptional circumstances.

She said today: "The coroner [Chinyere Inyama] actually phoned me after the paper came out at 9pm and we have actually got a date in October. Bear in mind Alex died a year ago.

"When he phoned he was very polite. He just apologised and said when do you want it?

"There's one side saying it is his staff [at fault] and there's others saying it is him"

In June we reported that court backlogs and delays in holding inquests were causing distress for bereaved families which also included concerns about Surrey's coroner's court at Woking.

At the time it was reported that West London Coroner Chinyere Inyama told an inquest in April that he was "deeply embarrassed" by the length of time cases had been taking to appear in the coroner’s court.

He was embarrassed earlier this year after leaving documents relating to the Alice Gross murder on a train.

Since Mr Inyama joined the court last November there had been almost a 75 per cent turnover in staff in the office. He said mismanagement had caused long delays in cases being heard and this was now being rectified.

He added: "For want of a better word, simple cases should not be taking a year and a half to come into the court and in future they will not."

Dominic Grieve, the attorney general was reported by ITV news to be concerned at the length of time one of his constituents had been waiting for a full death certificate.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell was also said to be shocked at the service given to a family he was working with.

A statement on Mr Inyama's behalf issued to ITV said: "The West London Senior Coroner is unable to comment about the issues you have raised pending the determination of Judicial Conducts Investigation Office investigations into the same subject matter.

"He can however confirm that he has not been asked to resign from his office."

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