This paper reported last week how staff at East London Coroner’s Court had spent 24 work hours trying unsuccessfully to secure a post-mortem examination for three-year-old Ahsanul Hoque Izyan.
Senior coroner Graeme Irvine blamed the delays on years of chronic underfunding of pathology services.
He admonished the office manager of Dagenham and Rainham MP Margaret Mullane in open court for writing to his staff and asking them to speed the process up.
Three-year-old Ahsanul, of Lewis Way, Dagenham, is believed to have drowned in April during a family trip to Greece.
Coroner’s officer Jean Smyth told the court on Thursday, May 22, he had “slipped away unnoticed by adults” on April 13.
“Sadly, he was later found in the pool, unresponsive,” she said.
No records of the Greek investigation into the boy’s death have yet been supplied, meaning the UK coroner had to order a British post-mortem.
But at a hearing on Thursday, May 15, Mr Irvine said his staff – despite protracted efforts – had thus far been unable to find a specialist paediatric pathologist available to conduct the procedure.
He said the delays could result in the degradation of important evidence.
At the May 22 hearing, Mrs Smyth said a post-mortem had now been done, but the cause of death was “not yet ascertained, pending histology” – the microscopic study of tissue cells.
“I’m satisfied on those facts this death occurred in circumstances requiring an inquest,” said coroner Nadia Persaud.
Inquests are held in public, in the public interest, to investigate unexplained or unnatural deaths and whether future similar deaths might be avoidable.
“From the family, I would like some general background information about Ahsanul, any information they can provide about the circumstances surrounding his death and if they have any specific concerns surrounding his death, details of those concerns,” Mrs Persaud added.
She said she would ask the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to seek evidence from Greece, including “police investigation statements, the outcome of the police investigation and the post-mortem from Greece.”
The final inquest was set for December 3.
