Jon McGregor - Even the Dogs

coroner: Thank you. Please be seated.

Before beginning this morning, I’d like to give you some explanation of the inquest process, and of my role as coroner.

This is not a criminal court: no one is on trial today, and no one will be found to be nor accused of being responsible for Mr Robert Radcliffe’s death.

We are here to investigate the facts, and to record them, and to answer four questions which I am legally required to ask: who the deceased person was, where he came by his death, when he came by his death, and how he came by his death. The answers to these questions will constitute the verdict of this inquest. In the course of reaching that verdict I shall be asking witnesses to come to the stand and answer any questions I may have about the circumstances surrounding Mr Radcliffe’s death. The law also allows me to invite what are known as Properly Interested Persons to ask their own questions of those witnesses, should they so wish. For our purposes today Laura Radcliffe will be recognised, as a relative of the deceased, as a Properly Interested Person.

Are there any questions at this stage?

What do we do now. Where do we go. Did any of us think it would be like this. When we started. When Laura started did she think this would. Did she think it would end up here. When she started. When she would try anything. What was it. When she thought she could do anything just to prove that her mum and Paul couldn’t say. When they said We’ve got your best intentions at heart. And all that. But what was it was it that. Takes more than that. Easy to find blame some place but it don’t mean nothing now.

coroner:. . is to ensure that the deceased person is granted a full and open hearing of the facts in a public manner. You may note the absence of journalists or members of the public in court this morning; nevertheless, this is a public court, and what we say here today will be a matter of public record. [Could I just ask, Ms Radcliffe: do you have any objection to me calling you Laura? ( Inaudible response .) Thank you.]

We have a responsibility towards the deceased, and I trust that as his daughter, Laura, you will feel that we at the coroner’s court are doing our utmost to uphold that.

I might also add, of course, that whilst we are here to perform an important task we are doing so in the context of the sadness of Mr Radcliffe’s death, and I would like to extend the sympathies of the court to you, Laura, and to thank you for being here at what I know must be a difficult and distressing time.

What do we do now. Where do we go. We sit at the back of the court and we listen to everything they say. We sit in the cold dark room and we wait until someone comes back for his body. They will come back. They have to. Someone has to do something with him now. Take him away. Now they know. We read the reports and we look at the notes and the photographs and we read the transcript of the inquest tucked away in the files. We sit and we look at Laura. In the court. In the front row of these soft blue chairs. Sitting with her hands pressed into her lap, leaning forward to look at the judge. Coroner, judge, whatever. We hear more footsteps in the long corridor outside. Voices. Keys. The door being unlocked. A long metal trolley is pushed into the room and the men who drove the darkened van away from Robert’s flat come to take him away again. Rolling him out from behind the heavy doors and sliding him on to the trolley and signing more forms before they push him out down the corridor to the shuttered doorway and the new day’s sunlight pouring in down the long concrete ramp. We go with them. What else can we do.

coroner:. . on to the first of our four questions: who has died? I quote here from a report prepared by one of my officers.

The identity of the deceased was not immediately apparent upon the discovery of the body: although he was found in his own flat, there was nothing to confirm that he was the listed tenant, nor were any identifying documents found on his body. A number of papers were found in an envelope under the mattress in one of the bedrooms, principally documents connected with the claiming of benefits; however, as they were in more than one person’s name they were of little immediate value.

The next-door neighbour said that she didn’t know any of the names of the people who lived or congregated at the flat, and declined to identify the body. The council housing department stated that the flat was unoccupied and awaiting repairs, the last tenant having been evicted some years previously. The name of this supposedly evicted tenant matched the name on one of the benefits claims documents which had been found in the flat, that of Robert John Radcliffe.

At this point my officers sought the dental records of said Robert Radcliffe, which proved to be unobtainable. Meanwhile, a matching set of fingerprints had been found on the criminal records database, but under another name; a name similar but not identical to another of the names on the benefits claims forms found in the flat.

It was beginning to appear that whilst dying without an identity in a modern bureaucratic country such as ours is exceedingly difficult, dying with multiple identities is all too easy, and equally problematic.

However, further enquiries did eventually lead us to make contact with Laura Radcliffe, who was at that time attending a residential drug rehabilitation centre, and Laura was then able to attend the public mortuary and identify her father’s body, for which difficult duty the court now thanks you, Laura.

So we have the answer to our first question: the deceased’s full name was Robert John Radcliffe, and he was resident at Flat 1, Riverview Gardens, and he was born, according to his birth certificate, on November 12th 1961, in Leeds.

Where did she go. Why did she never go back to the flat when she knew he was waiting. How could she just forget. How could she just let someone else. Was she trying to. Was she making him. We sit and look at his body in the back of the van. We want to ask him but we can’t. Did she go back. Did she see him again. Did she climb in through the window one more time and say Dad I’m back but I didn’t bring nothing I aint got nothing for you. You’ll have to wait for someone else. Is that it. Is that what happened. Did he look up at her and plead with her and say Laura, what the bloody hell is wrong with you I need you to help me. Did she what. Did she look at him for as long as she could bear and say Dad I needed you for a long time didn’t I and where were you. What were you doing. You were just sitting here feeling sorry for yourself and drinking yourself to death with your so-called fucking mates. Or did she only wish she had said that. Is she glad now she didn’t. Did he say Laura love I aint dead yet. Did he say Laura don’t go. Did he say You watch I’ll stop drinking right now. I’ve done it before. If it bothers you that much I’ll stop right now. You watch. Did he. Did she climb back out the window while he still said Laura don’t go what you doing. Was that the last thing she ever saw ever heard him say. Is that it. Can she get that out of her mind now. Can she ever get that out of her.

coroner:. . that his body was discovered in the sitting room of Flat 1, Riverview Gardens, as we shall be hearing from PC Nelson in due course, and that the only door to the flat was bolted from the inside. This might suggest that Mr Radcliffe could only have died in the flat.

However, we’ll also hear that the kitchen window, which overlooks the roof of some garages at the side of the flats, was ajar, and that it would have been possible for someone to enter or exit the flat by that route. And in fact we’ll hear from Laura that she herself had done just that prior to Mr Radcliffe’s death.

So it’s possible that someone could have brought Mr Radcliffe’s body into the flat, bolted the door from the inside, and left via the kitchen window. However, the evidence from the scene supports the suggestion that Mr Radcliffe came by his death in the location where his body was found: there were no inconsistencies between the pattern of decomposition and the position of the body, for example, and there were no marks or bruises on his clothing or body which suggested he had been dragged or carried anywhere after his death.