'Begging letters' sent to police for inquests support (From The Northern Echo)

'Begging letters' sent to police for inquests support

8:00am Thursday 9th February 2012 in News By Lucy Richardson

“BEGGING letters” have been sent to a police force pleading for more help in clearing a backlog of inquests, a coroner has revealed.

Teesside Coroner’s Service has been criticised by bereaved families over the length of time taken to process inquests – an average of 43 weeks compared to the national average of 27 weeks.

Teesside Coroner Michael Sheffield and his deputy, Tony Eastwood, said the accumulation of files could be cleared if extra police staff could be provided on a temporary basis.

However, Cleveland Police said it was facing a financial crisis and that the two officers deployed to the service would be replaced in the next two years by civilian workers. It could not make any assurance that further roles would be created.

Julia Hatton, head of legal services at the force, said new computer software was available to assist the tracking of cases, but said resources were too scarce to train staff to use it.

Concerns over the backlog of about 300 cases is being investigated by the Community Safety and Leisure Scrutiny Panel at Middlesbrough Council, which met yesterday.

Mr Eastwood said that until last year, staff had to share computers and telephones, which further hampered their work. He said: “We can say we are doing our job properly, we are compassionate.

It is our neck on the block when it comes to the backlog of cases and that is unfair.

“We would like some additional temporary resources now to get the backlog to an acceptable level.

“We are keeping pace at the present time. There has been correspondence and some of them have been begging letters.”

The panel heard that deaths in custody at local prisons, which demand a Ombudsman investigation, have contributed to the delays, along with deaths at The University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, and The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

Mr Sheffield said a meeting would take place on March 23 with the coroner’s service, police and local MPs Ian Swales and James Wharton to try to resolve the issue.

Mrs Hatton responded to a claim by Mr Eastwood that his department has long been a “poor relative” of Cleveland Police, saying the number of staff at the corner’s office had remained the same, whereas staff levels at Cleveland Police had been reduced.