Coroner told to watch his words

A CORONER who told a black community it was time to ‘pay back’ efforts to accommodate them into a multicultural society by helping police catch the killers of two teenage girls was warned by Britain’s Home Secretary to be careful with his language.

Birmingham coroner Aidan Cotter said the community in the city's Aston district, where black cousins Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare were gunned down, had a duty to help police with their murder inquiry.

He told the opening of the inquest into 18-year-old Charlene's death: "Birmingham prides itself on being a multiracial city and the authorities go to great lengths to try to accommodate everybody's customs, practices and beliefs.

"It is time for your community to pay back and to conform with our belief, which is that everybody has a duty to co-operate with the police, to make sure the murderers are caught and they are not given any protection by their friends or even their families.

"Everybody has a duty to make sure that Charlene's killers are caught."

Responding to the coroner's remarks, Home Secretary David Blunkett told BBC Radio 4's The World At One programme: "I actually believe that we have to be very careful in terms of the language.

"I have only got the immediate reports of what the coroner said. He is right in believing this is an issue for all of us.

"I don't think anyone needs to talk about 'pay back' because we are part, they are part, of a cohesive community.

"We are in this together. We are citizens of the same country and in each neighbourhood people have a duty to help the police."

Mr Cotter said post mortem tests showed Charlene, of Wheeler Street, Lozells, Birmingham, had died from a bullet wound to the head one of three rounds from a 9mm submachine gun which hit her.

She and Letisha, 17, were pronounced dead at the scene, while Charlene's twin sister, Sophie, and another cousin, Cheryl Shaw, also 17, were wounded.

The four were among 25 revellers who had stepped outside the back of a hairdresser's salon in Birchfield Road, Aston, for some fresh air during a party to celebrate New Year in the early hours of January 2.

Detectives believe the four were the victims of a deadly turf war between two rival gangs who opened fire at the back of the salon.

Mr Cotter told Charlene's mother, Beverley Thomas, who attended the hearing with three relatives, that a funeral for the teenager could not take place for at least three weeks because he would have to keep her body.

If the suspected killer was arrested and charged, lawyers would be entitled to ask for a second post mortem examination. Mr Cotter said he would be writing to Mr Blunkett asking him to spend more money on tackling escalating gun crime in Birmingham and for children as young as eight to be taught about the danger of drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Detective Superintendent Dave Mirfield, who is leading the investigation, told the inquest officers had retrieved 250 CCTV videos from around the scene and were studying them to identify two cars which sped off after the exchange of gunfire.

The inquest was adjourned for three weeks, when Charlene's family will be able to make an application to the coroner for her body to be released for the funeral.

The inquest into the death of Letisha is due to open tomorrow.