Alice Gross Coroner Lost Key File On Train

The coroner investigating the death of schoolgirl Alice Gross lost a file on her murder after leaving it on a train.

The Ministry of Justice has launched an inquiry into how the London West coroner, Chinyere Inyama, came to lose the 30-page document and why he had taken it from his office.

Police say the file, which included information about her suspected killer Arnis Zalkalns, was probably "destroyed as waste".

Alice's parents have said they are "concerned, bewildered and angry" at the development - and at the fact they have only just been informed about it.

Fourteen-year-old Alice was found dead in the Grand Union Canal in Ealing, west London, on 30 September last year.

Her disappearance from her home in nearby Hanwell the previous month had prompted the biggest investigation by the Metropolitan Police since the July 2007 bombings.

Latvian builder Zalklans was found hanged in Boston Manor Park in west London on 4 October.

Police said that had he been found alive he would have been charged with Alice's murder.

CCTV pictures showed Zalkalns following her on his bike in Hanwell, and a well preserved cigarette butt found metres from where her body was discovered contained his DNA.

An inquest into the deaths of Alice and Zalkalns was opened and adjourned in October.

But Mr Inyama reportedly lost the vital document after leaving it on a train the following month.

In a statement the Ministry of Justice said: "This clearly appears to be a troubling incident. A full investigation is now under way."

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "In November 2014 the MPS was informed by HM Coroner, London West, that he had inadvertently disposed of a single document relating to the police evidence against Arnis Zalkalns.

"An investigation to recover it was undertaken. This concluded that it was highly likely it had been destroyed as waste."

Alice's parents, Ros Hodgkiss and Jose Gross, released a statement saying: "We have looked to the police and coroner to help us through our awful loss.

"Yet now we learn they - either independently or together - have withheld from us the loss of this terribly sensitive information about Alice.

"We are extremely concerned, bewildered and angry - and we have asked for a full written explanation as to what exactly happened and why we were not told."

The inquest into Alice's death is likely to be held in November or December this year.

Mr Inyama is expected to rule next week on the scope of the inquest, including whether it will be held with or without a jury.

Zalkalns, 41, had previously served seven years in jail in his home country for murdering his wife Rudite.

The labourer, who worked at a building site in Isleworth, west London, is believed to have come to the UK in 2007, but authorities are thought to have had no record of his murder conviction.