Leah Croucher: Police ask coroner to withhold suspect inquest record

A coroner said he was withholding the inquest record of the man suspected of murdering Leah Croucher after police said it could "jeopardise" their case.

Neil Maxwell has been named the prime suspect in the killing, but he took his own life weeks after the 19-year-old went missing in Milton Keynes in 2019.

The Buckinghamshire city's senior coroner, Tom Osborne, said it would be released at the "earliest opportunity".

Miss Croucher's body was found in the loft of a house last month.

Mr Osborne had been due to release the document on Tuesday after the BBC made an application for it to be disclosed.

The teenager was last seen by her family at their home on the night of 14 February 2019.

CCTV footage from the following morning showed her walking to work, but she never arrived.

More than three years later, Thames Valley Police said a body found in a house on Loxbeare Drive belonged to the missing 19-year-old and named Neil Maxwell as her suspected killer.

An inquest was carried out after his death in April 2019.

In a statement, Mr Osborne said: "I had previously indicated that I would today, November 1, disclose the record of inquest relating to Neil Maxwell... whose inquest was concluded on October 9, 2019.

"I received a request from Det Ch Supt Ian Hunter, who is overseeing the investigation into the death of Leah Croucher, to withhold disclosure of the record of inquest for a further short period of time as it contains information that is sensitive to their continuing investigation, and by releasing that information into the public domain at this stage may seriously jeopardise the investigation."

Mr Osbourne said "open and transparent justice would normally dictate that I disclose the record of inquest".

He added: "However, I have every reason to believe that disclosure of the document at this stage may seriously compromise and indeed jeopardise the ongoing investigation into the death of Leah Croucher, and for that reason the balance is in favour of not disclosing the document, for the time being, although it is a matter that will be kept under constant review and it will be released at the earliest opportunity.

"The content of the document will not change and the risks of compromise to the continuing investigation outweigh the need for disclosure."

Detectives said the suspect had worked as a handyman for the owner of the house where Miss Croucher's remains were found.

The homeowner lived abroad and Maxwell was the only one with keys to the house, they said.

Maxwell had been convicted of a number of sexual offences against women in the past and - at the time he died - was on the run in connection with another alleged sexual assault in November 2018.

Thames Valley Police previously said it would keep "an open mind" during its murder investigation, which "may or may not implicate or exonerate Maxwell or any other persons from the investigation". However, it said he was the only suspect at this stage.

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