Ryan St George was left needing around the clock care after being failed by the prison authorities

NOBODY at the Camden New Journal claims to be an expert on the coroners’ service, nor is it likely that many of our readers are.

St Pancras Coroner’s Court has a certain mystique about it.

Maybe the setting is romantic, tucked away next to the churchyard where Dickens set scenes for A Tale Of Two Cities and the weatherbeaten tombs of writers and thinkers hint at the stories of forgotten years.

But however lovely and historic all of this may be, the service cannot perform like it is part of a thatched roof century.

It is time to peel back this near gothic wrapping and help the public understand what an inquest is for and why they are held.

And why they are not!

To any layman reading the tragedy of Ryan St George’s life and death this week, it may have seemed like an obvious call that the case needed the transparency of an inquest.

It is clear that his family have a list of questions, while the details have proved unusual enough for police to now become involved.

His relatives say they have never really been told why an inquest was not arranged and trying to get an explanation from the coroner or her office at St Pancras is like trying to unlock an ancient code.

On the face of it, an inquest would have been the perfect arena for the details of Mr St George’s death to be scrutinised and those involved to explain what happened, for good or for bad.

In the void and the long wait for answers, the ache for those who loved him is hardly soothed.

We are asked to place trust in authorities and the process, but this is harder to do when so little clarity is provided.

Coroners – in our area, it’s Mary Hassell – should allow themselves to be interviewed at least once or twice a year by the press, just like other important figures who make crucial decisions do.

The heads of other services, like the borough police commander and the director of public health, make appearances at council committees. If there is a cost factor, so be it. It is part of a system of accountability which is vital for trust.

There may be a good reason as to why Mr St George’s death was not put through the inquest process. In that case, let us hear it in simple terms.

If not to us – at least to a family which has spent too long waiting for authorities to answer painful questions.

Great escape

BANKSY and his teammates show great skill in capturing the public imagination. Every stencil leads to crowds of people with cameraphones.

Such is his pull even London Zoo was ‘buzzing’ over an image left on its gates which showed the animals escaping – and one met with delight by people who think zoos shouldn’t exist at all.