Official failures over tragic abuse family

The revelation was contained in a letter from the coroner who presided over the inquest into their deaths.

Writing to Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, Olivia Davison said she was "extremely concerned" with their administrative procedures.

Town hall officials did not routinely ask for basic details of victims' families, but relied on them being volunteered, she said.

Miss Davison, the assistant deputy coroner for Rutland and North Leicestershire said "ongoing practice" said that if officials from the Community Safety Team had found evidence that Francecca Hardwick was severely disabled the case would have been dealt with differently..

The 38-year-old mother-of-two killed herself and her 18-year-old daughter after suffering years of abuse from youths at their home in Barwell, Leicestershire.

Their bodies were found in a burnt out car in October 2007.

Miss Davison called on the chief executive of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council to launch an "immediate review" of the Community Safety Department.

She says changes were needed to prevent similar deaths.

As well as failing to ask basic questions, a council official is criticised for "extraordinary" methods of record keeping.

The official who visited the family failed even to write the time or date of his visit on the forms, and did not ask the family when the attacks on their home happened.

Names of the officials involved in the case were censored by the Ministry of Justice.