Police decide death not suspicious before seeing toxicology results

A week ago, a memorial service was held for Christopher Shales, the late Chairman of David Cameron’s constituency association. The Prime Minister called him “a loving and generous colleague and friend”, and I have no doubt that such is the truth: by all accounts, he seems to have been a nice bloke.

On talking to the Constituency Association in June, I got a bit of a flea in my ear about ghoulish journalists hounding bereaved families. I also received a fairly unpleasant email asking me, more or less, to mind my own business.

But Mr Shales was found dead in a portaloo at a rock festival. And rumours persist that he had a more than nodding acquaintance with cocaine. Which perhaps explains why, after the post mortem, samples from the deceased were sent off for a toxicology test.

That was on 25th June. By the time we know the results on Sept 27th ( the date of which in the end I had to get from the Avon Police press office) it will be 13 weeks since Christopher’s untimely death.

Amy Winehouse’s toxicology test took just under four weeks.

Since first making enquiries of the Bristol Coroner Ben Batley, I’ve been told the results would be known ‘soon’, that the lab technician was on holiday, that Batley wasn’t there (three times) and that he too was on holiday. Earlier today – in yet another Batley absence – his assistant directed me to the Avon police press room.

When I rang them, they’d no idea why I’d been put on to them. But press officer Wayne Baker did eventually tell me that the inquest has been set, and the date. Funny that the Coroner’s Office didn’t think to mention that. When I asked why the process had taken so long, he told me it was no longer a police matter.

I asked how he could be sure, before the inquest.

“Well,” said Wayne, “After initial enquiries, we decided to treat the death as sudden rather than suspicious”.

But you haven’t had the toxicology test results yet, I pointed out. Apparently, that makes no difference.

Many years ago, I happened to be closely involved in the death by peritonitis of a small child from a problem home. At that inquest, the police were present. The Coroner found there was evidence from the autopsy that the doctor called to the child had been negligent. He was arrested on the spot, a few seconds after the inquest closed.

There may be nothing at all to any of this. But if I was running Cameron’s news management – fully aware of the cloud of alleged drugs usage that hangs over him – and if I was sure Christopher Shales’s death was entirely innocent, I’d make sure the matter was cleared up and totally above board with all haste. There are times when Number Ten seems these days to go out of its way to be mysterious for no reason at all; but on this occasion, as a semi-pro journalist, I can’t help but feel I’ve been given the run-around. There is a sense in which my nose says Downing Street is hoping this will disappear, if left long enough.

We shall see. Make a date: Shepton Mallet Coroner’s Court, Tuesday 27th Spetember, at 3.00 pm.