Father Murdo Urquhart asks why he was not asked for DNA in the identification of his son, Ramsay Urquhart, from Inverness, who was found dead in a flat in London
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The father of an Inverness man has raised further concerns about the way in which his son’s death has been handled.
Murdo Urquhart (67), originally from Inverness but who now lives in Keith, wrote this week to a head coroner in England to raise a number of concerns in regard to the handling of his son’s case by the coroner’s service.
Earlier this year, a second coroner’s inquiry found that Ramsay Urquhart (33), an English language teacher, died alone in a bedsit in London on April 14, 2019 of natural causes.
On the night when his body was discovered, police were alerted to concerns about Ramsay’s health after his family had not heard from him. Ramsay lived alone and suffered from type one diabetes.
Mr Urquhart, a former technician at Inverness College UHI, said: “I do not believe that it can be proved against all reasonable doubt that it was Ramsay that was in that bed in April 2019.
“There is nothing that we have heard that will convince Susan, [Ramsay’s mum] and I that this was him whose body was discovered.”
In a letter to Derek Winter, the deputy chief coroner of England and Wales, Mr Urquhart said: “The purpose of all inquests in England and Wales is laid down in law is to identify who
died, where they died, how they died and when they died.
“Next of kin are deemed interested persons in law and have the legal right to identify the body. DNA can be used to identify the body if there is no one available.”
Mr Urquhart said that both he and his son, who would have been able to give DNA to prove that the body was that of Ramsay, were not asked to provide any samples, and that no one from his family, or his wife, were given access to his body, before he was buried by the state.
He continued: “The police on site could not identify the body from his passport picture. We believe his face had been battered.
“I believe that the only way to get any closure is to raise a formal complaint, and I am asking why these things have happened, and why we cannot know for 100 per cent certainty that this was Ramsay.”
A spokesman for the coroner’s service said: “The chief coroner does not handle complaints about coroners. This is done by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office.”
We have invited the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office to comment.
