THE parents of a murdered woman will take a coroner to court over claims that alleged police failings have not been investigated properly.

Susan Nicholson was killed by her partner, chef Robert Trigg, at her home in Worthing in 2011.

Trigg had initially told police he had fallen asleep and “rolled on top of her”, causing her to suffocate.

But when Ms Nicholson’s parents Peter and Elizabeth Skelton launched their own investigation into the “accidental” death, they found another of Trigg’s girlfriends had also died of “natural causes” five years earlier.

Now they are challenging a refusal by the coroner for West Sussex to hold a full inquest into her death, which would probe any police failings.

In particular, another woman, Caroline Devlin, had died in bed with Trigg five years before, but the death was not treated as suspicious.

Mr Skelton said: “I see this hearing as an opportunity to make sure that there is a proper inquiry into whether Susan’s death could have been prevented.

“Sussex Police had all the information about Trigg’s history of violence against Susan and other women.They knew that Caroline had died while in bed with him.

“Even after Susan’s neighbour called the police and they found Susan with injuries to her face, they didn’t see that he was a danger to her. We want to ask the officers what they did to protect Susan and we had hoped that Sussex Police would want their officers to be alert to the dangers faced by victims of domestic violence and protecting them properly.

“We are hurt and disappointed that they have chosen to fight our challenge instead and that they want us to pay their legal costs if we lose.”

A judicial review by Mr and Mrs Skelton had been scheduled for March at the Royal Courts of Justice but was postponed due to coronavirus, after being granted a hearing in November 2019.

Now the hearing will take place next week, between Tuesday and Thursday.

They argue that they are entitled to a full inquest, which would look into the issues raised, under Article 2 of the Human Rights Act, the right to life.

They hope a full inquest will mean victims of domestic violence are better protected by police in the future.

In 2017, Trigg was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years for the murder of Miss Nicholson and the manslaughter of Miss Devlin.

It was revealed Trigg himself has written to the court, demanding that any inquest should look again at whether he was responsible for Susan’s death, despite being found guilty.

The family is calling for help to continue their judicial review proceedings by raising funds at https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/justice-for-susan.