Controversial Senior Coroner Back at Work with Court in Fulham
Chinyere Inyama returns after reprimand despite call from H&F Council to resign
Senior Coroner Chinyere Inyama has returned to work with West London Coroner Court in Bagleys Lane in Fulham after a two year absence, following claims that he had sent offensive messages and bullied one of his team.
Mr Inyama, who was ordered out of coroners’ court in October 2016, also faced an earlier judicial conduct investigation in 2014 after he lost a 30 page police file into the death of teenager Alice Gross, who was murdered in a sex attack. It is believed that he left a report on her killer Arnis Zalkalns on a train despite the fact that police had specifically told him not to remove from his office.
The investigation led to him being given 'formal advice' but he was allowed to keep his job, and the official censure was for failing to report the incident promptly rather than the initial blunder.
However, Alice Gross' parents said they were 'bewildered and angry' at the incident and the 14-year-old’s inquest was eventually handled by a different coroner.
Since then there have been numerous complaints about him including allegations of bullying, dealing insensitively with bereaved families, sexist comments and a growing backlog of cases.
The complaints led to
Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter raising the issue in the House of Commons saying: " Despite previous findings of serious misconduct, three year delays in issuing death certificates, secret inquests being held at night and important case papers being lost, he has been cleared by the Secretary of State to return to work. Will the Secretary of State meet west London MPs and council leaders to discuss this crisis?"
The Secretary of State agreed to take the meeting. In 2015 the six councils served by the West London Coroner which includes H&F wrote to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office asking that action be taken against him.
A spokesman for H&F Council, which pays his salary on behalf of the boroughs in his jurisdiction said: " We believe the best result for bereaved families is for Mr Inyama to resign."
His case was reviewed by the then-Lord Chancellor David Lidington, who became Minister for the Cabinet Office in the recent reshuffle, and Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett who concluded that his behaviour amounted to serious misconduct.
Apparent texts from the coroner have since emerged, including one where he allegedly said: "I don’t want dodgy t*ts answering the phones." In another, he allegedly wrote about a woman: "She must be gay. She needs to find someone to bump crotches with."
However, after 14 month investigation, they did not recommend that he be fired and instead he was reprimanded and told to undergo retraining to avoid a repeat of his behaviour.
According to the Evening Standard, Mr Inyama was initially working from home rather than the coroners’ offices in Fulham and has now overseen any inquest hearings. However, he continued to receive his £120,000 a year salary while off work, and is expected eventually to go back to handling investigations into deaths across Hillingdon, Ealing, Hounslow, Richmond, Kingston and Hammersmith & Fulham.
Colleagues have kept the coroners’ court running in his extended absence, with assistant coroner Dr Sean Cummings overseeing the recent inquest of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, the 15 year-old who died from an allergic reaction to a Pret A Manger sandwich.
Hammersmith & Fulham council said: "Our number one priority is bereaved families and improving the service they get. We strongly urge the Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor to now take every possible step to make the service work for residents."
Mr Inyama told the Standard he had "absolutely no comment".
October 18, 2018