And also on the Monday we had a phone call from the Coroner’s Officer. Obviously they want, gathering evidence as well. I have to say that my experience of this particular Coroner’s Officer wasn’t that great because his initial, the way that he opened the conversation was, “I’ve been doing this job X amount of years and this is the third worst I’ve seen.” And I said, “Well that’s very nice of you to share that with me. Please do not say that to my parents.” But he did. So quite an insensitive person really.

What did he mean?

It was the, the worst. He said he’d seen my sister’s remains and, and the state of her remains were the third worst. There were two others that had been worse that he’d seen. Which is a terrible way to, to introduce yourself to a bereaved family under such tragic circumstances. And immediately I had no respect for this man at all. And then he went on to say it to my parents as his way of introducing himself to them as well. Consequently, I mean I’d never met this man up until the date of my sister’s inquest and he; I’d already built up a mental picture of how I expected this man to appear and how I expected him to behave and I was right.

Did he ask you for a statement at all?

I actually did write a statement but I don’t know if it was him that asked me for it or the Coroner himself because I had a letter from the Coroner and I think it was the Coroner himself who asked me to write a statement of what, about my sister’s life and any health problems or, or any other. He wanted a whole picture of her really. So I did that. It took me quite a while to do it because I didn’t feel like it initially. It’s as simple as that. I was, I was deeply hurt and grieving and shocked and I just left it for a little while. But it, it took me a while to do it when I did get around to writing it.

And the Coroner’s Officer, what role did he play with your parents? Did he again ask them for statements?

No. We never met him at all. It was just a phone call to say I am, this is my name and I will be the Coroner’s Officer. And that was all, all the involvement he had really. There was, there was nothing. We never met him. I mean I spoke to him perhaps on a handful of occasions on the phone but it was usually only when I wanted answers to questions that I would contact him. He didn’t really contact us. I don’t quite understand the role of this Coroner’s Officer. There was, he was certainly no help to us as a bereaved family.

Did he tell you what was going to happen at the inquest?

No.

So no preparation for the inquest?

No not really. The inquest was quite a while after the death anyway. And fortunately I’d been in contact with the Coroner by E-mail and any questions that I had I put to the Coroner directly himself. Because I didn’t want to deal with this, this cold person really, he had, I’d got no respect for.