Here's an excerpt from the coroner's inquest, Lady Justice Hallet, in her concluding remarks, confirms that full post mortems were NOT performed on the victims, which even she seems to think is somewhat irregular. But no worries, she passes the buck quickly enough.
Quote:
I was considerably assisted in my task by the work 25 of Colonel Mahoney and his team of experts. They were
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1 asked to explain the mechanics of death for someone 2 injured in an explosion generally and to consider the 3 cases of a number of the deceased who did not make it to 4 hospital where either the evidence indicated at first 5 blush they might not have died immediately or because 6 I had accepted a request from legal representatives to 7 look at the issue for a particular deceased. 8 We required Colonel Mahoney's assistance because the 9 decision was taken not to hold internal post-mortem 10 examinations of the 52 victims. Some of the families 11 approved of that decision and some did not. Those in 12 the latter group invited me to recommend that "coroners 13 should receive guidance" on the holding of internal 14 post-mortems even where the effective cause of death is 15 known, "if it is thought issues of survivability might 16 arise". They also asked me to consider recommending, in 17 effect, that bereaved families be given a greater say in 18 the decision-making process. I understand that this is 19 an issue that has troubled and continues to trouble 20 some. However, I ruled that this issue is outside the 21 scope of the inquests and I have heard no evidence at 22 all on how decisions of this kind are taken and what the 23 reasons for this particular and very difficult decision 24 were. I should say, for the avoidance of doubt, that 25 having heard nothing on the subject, I have no reason to
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1 doubt that the reasons were entirely sensible and the 2 decision justified, but ultimately the issue is not 3 a question for me. 4 I return to the evidence of Colonel Mahoney and his 5 team. Colonel Peter Mahoney is the Defence Professor of 6 anaesthetics at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine.
J7 comment, incl. more transcripts from the inquest, where a doctor who was trying to help a victim expresses his surprise that no internal post mortems were carried out. He's told:
Well, Mr Choudhary, that isn't a matter to concern you. A. Sorry. Q. I was simply informing you so that we didn't chase any red herrings, but we don't need to concern ourselves about that matter.
Begs the question - what is the point of a coroner?