Ripper could have been stopped

Two key officials might have stopped the Camden Ripper's killing spree.

Neither coroner Dr Stephen Chan nor Home Office pathologist Dr Freddy Patel found that Anthony Hardy's first victim, prostitute Sally White, had been murdered - leaving him free to go on to kill two women.

Today the Evening Standard can reveal that both have already faced serious criticism for their conduct in other cases - with Dr Patel given an official reprimand by the General Medical Council.

The family of Hardy, who faces a "life means life" sentence for his triple murder, told how they want nothing to do with a man whom police fear has committed up to six other killings.

His 27-year-old son Ben, speaking at the family home in Bury, St Edmunds, said: "What he did was horrendous and horrific.

"It is 17 years ago since we have had any contact with him. We do not want anything to do with him."

The family last saw Hardy when they lived in Australia, at a time when it became clear that he was descending into a world of violent mental illness.

His wife and four children, aged from 30 to 23, have now made their own lives after returning to Britain.

Today the full extent of the failings which happened before Hardy's final two victims were killed and dismembered were revealed for the first time.

The two officials found that Ms White had died of natural causes - despite being found dead in his flat, where he later murdered Elizabeth Valad and Bridgette Mac-Clennan.

Ms White's body was discovered in January 2002, and the brief inquest in April of that year accepted that the 38-year-old had died of natural causes.

Dr Patel said: "There were no marks of violence and there were traces of cocaine in the blood and urine but not enough to be fatal." Dr Chan ruled: "There is no foul play or third party involved in the death."

But their findings were were plunged into doubt at the Old Bailey when Hardy pleaded guilty to Ms White's murder.

Both men have had their professional competence questioned on other matters.

Dr Patel was given a reprimand by the GMC. He escaped being struck off for divulging the confidential medical details of Roger Sylvester who was unlawfully killed while in police custody.

Dr Patel broke strict rules on confidentiality to claim outside the inquest that he was a drug addict, basing his claims on medical records which the dead man's solicitor claimed were erroneous.

And Dr Chan, now retired, has been severely criticised for his rulings on the death of a 31-year-old mother shortly after she gave birth to twins and over a man gunned down by armed police who claimed they thought the table leg he was carrying was a shotgun.

Neither Dr Chan nor Dr Patel were available for comment.