Thank you to A Brewer from the Amazon forum for his interesting post.
"A. Brewer says:
Police Coroner's Officers have very specific, but very wide ranging powers, when it comes to collecting and collating all the facts relating to a sudden premature death ready for presentation to the coroner at the inquest. It will be very telling to see the full extent of the inquiries and investigations undertaken by the Coroner's Officer responsible for the Brenda Leyland case, once the inquest resumes in December.
Just to clarify for those that may not be too au fait with these types of inquiries, an inquest is an inquisitorial process, not adversarial, and it has just 3 basic tasks to complete: ascertain the identity of the deceased; determine when and where the person died; decide how the deceased died and what circumstances brought about their death.
In this particular case, personally, I would expect to see detailed evidence presented on the snitches "dossier", with statements from those that compiled it, as well as a summary of what was in the "dossier" that pertained directly to Mrs Leyland; information on when and to whom it was handed (MPS? McCanns? Sky News?) with accompanying statements from the receiving parties. I would also expect the coroner to summon some of these people to give evidence in person so that they can be cross-examined by her, or indeed by any other person who has a 'proper interest' in the inquest and who is permitted to do so by the coroner.
There may, of course, be other people who wish to submit evidence to the inquest, but whether they will be allowed to or not will always be a matter for the coroner to decide. However it is worth noting that CPS guidelines state categorically: "It is the general duty of every citizen (under common law) to attend an inquest if they are in possession of any information or evidence that details how a person came to their death."
I hope and trust that in December we shall see a full and detailed examination of the circumstances leading up to Brenda Leyland's sad and premature demise, followed by a comprehensive and determined investigation into any criminal actions and conspiracies should they be revealed by the inquiry."
For me while Sky might have been happy to give the dossier compilers anonymity I doubt the coroner will be quite so accommodating.
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