’The family want answers’: MP Keith Vaz demands ’full facts’ from hoax radio

’The family want answers’: MP Keith Vaz demands ’full facts’ from hoax radio

mangaloretoday.com/ Dailymail

London, Dec 13, 2012: Keith Vaz today demanded answers from the radio station behind the royal hoax call for the ’grief-stricken’ family of a duped Duchess of Cambridge nurse who was later found hanging in her flat.

Jacintha Saldanha, 46, a mother-of-two from Bristol, was found by a colleague and a security guard last Friday morning - and there were also marks on her wrist, Westminster Coroner’s Court was told.

 

 

Condolences: Flowers and personal messages (right) are pictured outside the King Edward VII Hospital apartments where Jacintha Saldanha (left) was found dead in central London last week

The Labour MP, who has been representing Ms Saldanha’s grieving relatives, said the family had not attended today’s inquest hearing because they were ’very, very upset’ but ’want to have all the facts’.

Mr Vaz has written on behalf of the family to Rhys Holleran, chief executive of Southern Cross Austereo, which owns the Sydney-based radio station 2Day FM, but revealed he is yet to write back.

The MP said he had relayed what the coroner said to the family today and insisted they were ’very grateful to the coroner’s officers and grateful to police’ because they ’want to have all the facts’.

But he added: ’I have not received a response (to my letter) so I think we will need him to respond.

’If you write a letter and you have questions, you really want answers, and that is all the family has wanted - the full facts - as you would want in a circumstance like this.’

Two notes were found in the room of Indian-born Mrs Saldanha, who worked at the King Edward VII Hospital in Marylebone, central London, treating Kate, 30, and another was among her possessions.

Detective Chief Inspector James Harman said: ‘On Friday 7 December Jacintha Saldanha was found by a colleague and a member of security staff. Sadly she was found hanging.

 

Family support: MP Keith Vaz addresses the media outside Westminster Coroner’s Court following a hearing

‘There was also injuries to her wrist. The London Ambulance Service was called to the scene. At this time there are no suspicious circumstances.’

She was on the reception desk when answering a call from Australian 2Day FM presenters Mel Greig, 30, and Michael Christian, 25, who were pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles.

The registered nurse and night sister then passed them onto a second nurse on Kate’s ward, who was duped into giving out details of her medical condition.

Her body was identified by her husband Benedict Barboza, 49, an NHS accountant, on Tuesday. Police are now looking at emails Ms Saldanha had sent in the lead up to her death.

DCI Harman added that he was in touch with colleagues in Australian at the New South Wales police force so they could provide the best evidence to be put before the inquest.

 

Hearing: Members of the media gather outside Westminster Coroner’s Court in central London where the inquest into the death of Jacintha Saldana is being held

Westminster Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox adjourned the inquest until March 26 so further enquiries can be carried out.

She added: ‘I pass my sympathies on to the colleagues, family and all those who have been touched by this terrible and tragic death.’

Mr Vaz said outside court: ’As you know, they are very, very upset and they are grieving and that is why they have not come this morning, it is a very long journey for them.

’I have spoken to them and I have relayed what the coroner has said. They are very grateful to the coroner’s officers and grateful to police.

’They want to have all the facts. They are a wonderful family and they are grief stricken and need time to grieve.’

Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday that ‘many lessons’ must be learned from the tragedy.

He told MPs: ‘She clearly loved her job, loved her work, cared deeply about the health of her patients and what has happened is a complete tragedy. There will be many lessons that need to be learned.’

Mr Vaz, who has met hospital chairman Lord Glenarthur to demand a full inquiry, said: ’What the chairman of the hospital said to me was that there are inquiries going on in the hospital.

’That is not sufficient for the family. There are unexplained circumstances. The family want to know everything. All the facts, fully and clearly.’

Mr Vaz added: ’The hospital needs to be more pro-active, a full inquiry is needed and the family need to be included in that.

’They are a lovely close-knit family, a Catholic family who will be spending their first Christmas without their mother, and for Ben, without his wife.’

 

Together: Mr Barboza (centre) at the Houses of Parliament with Lisha and Junal to meet with Mr Vaz (right)

Mr Vaz has also written to Mr Holleran, claiming that his company has yet to make any direct contact with Ms Saldanha’s family.

The MP, who is chairman of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, conceded there had been a public apology for the incident and its consequences through the media.

But he wrote: ‘I am concerned and disappointed that Southern Cross Austereo appears to have not taken any steps to assist the family.

‘There has been no written apology, no request for a meeting with the family and no attempt to travel to the United Kingdom to express contrition.’

 

Saddened: Sydney-based 2DayFM radio presenters Michael Christian (left) and Mel Greig (right in left, and right) made a grovelling apology in two interviews aired on Australian TV yesterday (one seen right)

Mr Barboza, an NHS accountant, and his children live in Bristol.

Mrs Saldanha, whose body was found in the hospital’s staff accommodation she used during the week, returned to the family home at weekends.

She had been expected home as usual last Friday when police broke the news of her death.

Mr Vaz said: ’They [the family] were in the dark about the hoax call. They hadn’t watched the news or seen anything about it. They didn’t know they were involved until after Jacintha’s death.’

A St James’s Palace spokesman stressed it did not complain about the hoax call, saying: ’On the contrary, we offered our full and heartfelt support to the nurses and hospital staff.’

 

Courtesy: Dailymail, London