A senior coroner has been found guilty of misconduct after leaving important police documents in the case of murdered schoolgirl Alice Gross on a train.
NOVEMBER: Coroner's court comes under fire from MP and six borough councils
Chinyere Inyama, of West London Coroner’s Court, lost a 30-page file in November 2014, one month after Alice’s body was found.
JULY: Murdered Alice Gross's parents 'bewildered' as coroner leaves file on train
His court carries out inquests into the death of the area's deceased and he has previously come under fire for alleged “rudeness” to grieving relatives and mismanagement.
Police tried to trace the missing file, which is thought to have been destroyed, and an investigation into Mr Inyama was launched.
The police file into murdered schoolgirl Alice Gross (pictured) was left on a train
Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) officials said the senior coroner had been given “formal advice” regarding the future handling of sensitive information.
The 14-year-old schoolgirl disappeared from her Hanwell home in August 2014 before her body was found in the River Brent on September 30.
She was seen walking towards Kew on the day she went missing.
The missing file is understood to have been in relation to Arnis Zalkalns, the prime suspect who was later found hanged in Boston Manor Park in October.
A JCIO spokesman said: “Senior coroner Chinyere Inyama, senior coroner for West London has been subject to a conduct investigation after temporarily misplacing a police report in relation to a case before him.
“The Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor found that coroner Inyama’s failure to report the loss to the chief coroner at the time it occurred amounts to misconduct and have issued him with formal advice regarding the future handling of sensitive information.”
Mr Inyama has been accused of rudeness towards grieving families and harassing his own staff in a letter sent to JCIO on behalf of Richmond, Kingston, Hounslow, Ealing, Hillingdon and Hammersmith and Fulham councils.
Twickenham MP Tania Mathias had what she described as a "difficult" meeting with Mr Inyama in October to discuss a backlog that has left some constituents "in tears" in her surgery as they waited for more than a year for an inquest into the death of a loved one to be opened and a death certificate issued.
She added that Mr Inyama told her he had inherited a backlog of cases from his predecessor, and showed her a letter praising him for getting through that backlog.
A Hammersmith and Fulham spokesman told the Evening Standard: “We received official notification from the JCIO today on its findings and we respect their ruling in this unfortunate matter.
“However as the JCIO is currently investigating our complaints about the senior coroner it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.”
The inquest will now take place at Westminster Coroner’s Court, with a date to be confirmed.
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