Tragic dad wins inquest battle

By tgardner

A FATHER searching for answers surrounding his son's suspicious death has thanked the Gazette for its help to obtain official papers crucial to his investigation.

Tireless Les Balkwell has been fighting for almost two months without success to get hold of transcripts of the inquest into how his son Lee became crushed in a cement mixer.

But the day after the Gazette called Essex Coroners Office for an explanation on the delay, Les, 68, was told the documents would be in the post and given an apology for the delay.

He said: “We felt we were being fobbed off at every turn that's why I turned to the paper.

“Just a day after the Gazette made a call to the coroner's office, I was given an apology for the distress caused by the delay and told that the transcripts would be in the post.

“I can only say thanks for taking an interest in my cause. I just hope there won't be any more hold-ups.”

Les says the records of witnesses' accounts from the 10-day hearing held in February could hold key information into the murky death he is adamant was “murder made to look like an accident” on a cement works in July 2002.

But the inquest jury ruled the former county golfer had died cleaning out the inside of a cement lorry drum, and returned a verdict of unlawful killing as a result of his boss's gross negligence.

The Balkwell family, who endured the sixth anniversary of the father-of-one's death last week, believe a number of witnesses said things under cross examination that would answer important questions about the incident on Baldwins Farm, Upminster.The police are still investigating Lee's death and the Independent Police Complaints Commission is looking into a list of complaints over how police conducted the investigation.Les added: “Both the police and the IPCC have had copies of the inquest transcripts for weeks. “Me and my legal team have been desperate to go through this document with a fine tooth comb for so long now.”endured the sixth anniversary of the father-of-one's death last week, believe a number of witnesses said things under cross examination that would answer important questions about the incident on Baldwins Farm, Upminster.

The police are still investigating Lee's death and the Independent Police Complaints Commission is looking into a list of complaints over how police conducted the investigation.

Les added: “Both the police and the IPCC have had copies of the inquest transcripts for weeks.

“Me and my legal team have been desperate to go through this document with a fine tooth comb for so long now.”