Inquest into schoolgirl's death 'may not start for two years'

An inquest into the death of a schoolgirl who was last seen with a convicted child killer may not start for two years, a court has heard.

The examination of Arlene Arkinson's murder was scheduled to commence this autumn but a coroner has now expressed doubts that it will even be held in 2013.

The delay is due to the length of time required to review and disclose to the court the huge police file on the case.

The body of the 15-year-old, from Castlederg, Co Tyrone, who disappeared after attending a disco across the Irish border in Bundoran, Co Donegal, in 1994 has never been found.

Arlene was last seen in a car driven by Robert Howard.

He was found not guilty of her murder in 2005.

Howard is serving a life sentence in Frankland Prison, Durham, for the rape and murder of 14-year-old Hannah Williams, whose body was found at a cement works in Northfleet, Kent, in March 2002.

The killer had mounted a legal challenge against a court order compelling him to appear as a witness at Arlene's inquest, but he has since dropped that appeal.

Howard remains the only suspect in the police investigation into the teenager's murder. Officers undertook fresh searches for her body last year, with more scheduled this spring.

At a preliminary inquest hearing in Belfast, senior coroner John Leckey was told that while 15 files of police documents on the case were ready for him to assess for relevance, a huge amount of outstanding paperwork had still to be re-examined by officers before being disclosed.

The police files on the murder run to 3,016 documents with 793 witness statements.

Members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland's legacy support unit must go through these line by line to see if any personal details of witnesses or police need to be blanked out to protect their security and privacy.

A lawyer for the police said the workload already facing the unit meant the process of studying Arlene's case notes was not set to start until the autumn and could take four months.

Mr Leckey will then have to go through all those papers himself to assess their relevance before passing them to legal representatives of both Howard and the Arkinson family for examination.

Ivor McAteer, a lawyer for the family, said it was likely the coroner's exercise in early 2013 would also take four months, with the lawyers then needing a similar timeframe.

He said there could then be legal arguments over relevance of certain documents, before a start date for the inquest could be set.

"I think we have to be realistic, it (the inquest) is clearly not going to happen this year," he said.

Mr Leckey agreed.

"There will also be a question mark about next year," the coroner added.

Mr McAteer replied: "Well certainly the early part of next year."

Mr Leckey indicated he was uneasy about asking the police unit to prioritise the examination of Arlene's files, noting that other families were also waiting for documents to be released for inquests.

Mr McAteer said the family would not object to that.

"The family don't seek to be prioritised, they know there are other families who are in similar positions," he said.

"They just want this done as expeditiously as possible but also properly."

Fiona Doherty, the solicitor for the coroner, said a delay appeared unavoidable.

"It seems that all parties have accepted that perhaps a September (2012) date for this inquest is simply not viable," she said.

"Mr McAteer is correct - it's important that matters are dealt with expeditiously but it's more important that are dealt with properly."

She said the only way that could be done was with full disclosure of all documents to the coroner.

Transcripts and depositions from Howard's murder trial in 2005 and files relating to the Hannah Williams' case are also due to be given the coroner.

During the half hour hearing, Mr Leckey also asked whether the police would be performing any fresh forensic tests on exhibits from the case.

The lawyer for the PSNI said the senior investigating officer would discuss that matter with the coroner at a scheduled meeting later.