The coroner holding inquiries into the deaths of Kingston residents has been accused of completing inquests at night instead of in public.

Lawyers representing a group of councils including Richmond, Kingston and Hounslow told a High Court judge that Chinyere Inyama, senior coroner for West London, had staged about 80 hearings between April and December last year at times ranging from 6.15pm to 11.52pm, well outside office hours.

The Coroners Rules 2013 state inquests must be opened in public and that a coroner can only exclude someone if they consider it necessary in the interests of justice or national security.

At a High Court hearing on August 4 barrister Deok Joo Rhee, acting on behalf of the councils, said: “There are serious concerns that the senior coroner has acted in persistent breach of the duty of coroners to hold inquests in public.”

This raised a “real question of misconduct”, she added.

Mr Justice Soole refused to order the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) to investigate and suggested the group of councils would have to find another way of triggering an investigation.

The judge said bereaved families would probably have good grounds for applying for a judicial review for individual cases if those hearings had been held outside of normal hours.

West London Coroners Court, based in Bagleys Lane, Fulham, came under fire in 2015 for a backlog of cases which left some bereaved families waiting up to 18 months for an inquest to be opened into the death of a loved one.

After Mr Inyama took over in November 2013 he mentioned during several inquests that he was “deeply embarrassed” by the length of time it had taken for some cases had been taking to appear in the court.

He added that there had been an almost 75 per cent turnover in staff since he took over and that previous mismanagement had caused long delays in cases being heard.

The backlog has now been cleared with almost all cases being heard within the recommended six months.

Mr Inyama also made headlines in February after he misplaced a file relating to the death of teenager  Alice Gross. 

The 30-page document was was later recovered. Mr Inyama was replaced in the case by senior coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox.

He was also accused of rudeness to grieving relatives and harassing his own staff by six borough councils and MPs in November 2015.

A spokesperson for the JCIO said: “The Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor found that Coroner Inyama’s failure to report the loss [of the Alice Gross file] to the Chief Coroner at the time it occurred amounts to misconduct and have issued him with formal advice regarding the future handling of sensitive information.

“The JCIO is investigating a further complaint regarding the administration of the coroner’s service.”

A spokesman for Hammersmith and Fulham Council admitted there was no indication anyone had complained about not being able to attend an inquest at the court, and added the affected authorities were now consulting on what to do next.