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Anger as 7/7 autopsy details are posted to families
Jack Lefley, Evening Standard30 Nov 2007
The families of the 52 people who lost their lives in the 7 July bomb attacks on London today reacted angrily after they were sent harrowing details of how their loved ones died.
With no warning, relatives were sent post-mortem reports describing the horrific injuries the victims suffered at the hands of the four suicide bombers.
The documents, which were received through the post, provided new information about the deaths on the three Tube trains and a bus - and detailed how their bodies burned.
Many of the families did not want to be told such graphic detail. Coroner Dr Andrew Reid, who sent the documents, faces calls for his removal from overseeing the inquests. The move is also thought to have angered police family liaison officers who have tried to protect families from the details.
The parents of one victim, David Foulkes, have called for Dr Reid to be removed immediately. Media sales manager Mr Foulkes, 22, was in the capital on business on the day he was murdered.
The post-mortem report arrived on his mother Janet's 58th birthday and she at first thought it was a card.
His father Graham said: "To receive such a document out of the blue was gut-wrenching. Two years and four months after he died, to send that out just before Christmas shows such insensitivity it beggars belief.
"The coroner has demonstrated poor judgment and an insensitive nature that shows he's not a fit and proper person to carry out the inquests into such a delicate matter."
Mr Foulkes, 56, of Oldham, told the Daily Mail: "It's human nature to want to read it - but it knocked us for six. I can't explain how devastatingly upsetting it was to read in such detail. There was no legal requirement for the coroner to send it out, it was his own initiative. It makes you wonder what sort of person he is - does he have children?"
A spokesman for Dr Reid said some victims' families had met him to review evidence about the "cause of death and the immediate circumstances in which the cause of death arose".
He added: "A number of these families have specifically requested to see the post-mortem reports. Other families have been requesting the reports since 2005 - and others since a recent meeting with the Home Secretary.
"This is never going to be easy for those who have lost loved ones." There has been no date set yet for the inquests into any of the victims' deaths.
Reader views (4)
I cannot believe how careless and totally insensitive this is.
How much more grief do people have to take for goodness sake?
A single day doesn't go by where I do not think of my friend Anat Rosenberg who died on the bus explosion in Tavistock Square that morning.
Imagine what it's like for loved ones? And then they recieve this!
It's sick...
- David Campbell, London, WC1, 30/11/2007 19:15
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The coroner acts totally independent of the serving government so you cannot blame Labour for this I'm afraid.
I find it disgusting that a letter was not sent to the families asking if they wished to know the full details prior to the report being sent. Surely it's common sense?
- Anon, London, London, UK, 30/11/2007 16:02
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It makes me so angry, to hear how badly this was dealt with and not dealt with immediately in 2005! How many more awful mistakes can this Labour government make?
- Mrs. H. O'Dell, Hertford, Herts, 30/11/2007 15:25
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I sympathise with recipients of these careless letters, however one should take on board that graphic details of injuries are all in a days work to coroners who take a dispassionate perspective and may have thereby overlooked the awful effect on relatives.
- Roger, London, UK, 30/11/2007 14:46
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