Police Not At Fault For Alice Death - Coroner

A coroner has told a jury that evidence does not show that the actions of the police or Home Office contributed to the death of schoolgirl Alice Gross.

Dr Fiona Wilcox announced her legal ruling on the fifth day of the hearing into the circumstances surrounding the 14-year-old's death in 2014.

She told the jury: "As a matter of law - and this is extremely important - I am instructing you that the evidence in this case does not support any final conclusions that would imply that any actions or inactions of the Home Office or police caused or contributed to Alice's death, and therefore no such findings may be reached."

Latvian builder Arnis Zalkalns - who had served a prison sentence for murdering his wife in his home country - is believed to have killed Alice in a sexually motivated attack.

The schoolgirl disappeared after leaving her home in Hanwell, west London, on 28 August 2014.

Her body was found on 30 September in the River Brent after Scotland Yard conducted its biggest search since the 7 July 2005 London bombings.

Zalkalns was found hanged in a park on 4 October and police said the 41-year-old would have been charged with Alice's murder if he had been found alive.

The girl's father Jose, her sister Nina, and mother Ros Hodgkiss, was in court on Friday as the coroner announced her legal ruling.

On the first day of the inquest on Monday, Ms Hodgkiss read a statement to the jury saying the family "remain stunned" that Zalkalns was "not monitored or even known about in any way" after he came to the UK.

Dr Wilcox told the jurors on Friday they had a "considerable amount of work to do".

After completing her summing up of the evidence, the coroner sent the jury out to begin its deliberations.

The jury, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, will continue its deliberations on Monday morning.