AN ANGUISHED father has hit out after failing to receive an explanation for the 51-month wait for an inquest into his York daughter's death.

Matthew Longhorn's comments came after an inquest jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure on 28-year-old Hannah Longhorn, who was found hanging at her home in Wenham Road, Foxwood, early on February 6, 2000.

York Coroner Donald Coverdale praised the dignity and patience of Mr Longhorn and his wife as they had sat through distressing evidence, but made no mention of the delays in bringing the case to a hearing. Mr Longhorn said in a statement that four years and three months was "too long to wait" for the inquest.

He said: "We have never been given a satisfactory reason for this delay.

"This has prolonged our anguish during a time of great difficulty and grief."

Mr Coverdale later declined to comment on the statement, but has previously told the Evening Press that difficulties in finding a venue and the large number of witnesses to be called were to blame for the delays.

Mr Longhorn also said the hearing had not inspired any confidence in the systems and procedures in place in February 2000.

"A life was lost when help was possibly a few minutes away."

He said his daughter had many problems and difficulties in her life, "but as a family we never gave up on Hannah."

The inquest had heard that on the night of her death, Hannah - who suffered from alcohol and mental health problems - had rung York police control to warn she intended hanging herself and giving police three minutes to respond.

Officers, who dealt with three other incidents on a very busy night before getting there 80 minutes later and finding her hanging in the hallway, criticised the radio system then in place, which suffered from reception "black holes."

Mr Coverdale said he had been impressed by a senior police officer, who had explained during the inquest about a series of improvements and changes that had since been made to the radio system and also to the control centre. The Coroner was pleased matters had been addressed and saw no purpose in writing to North Yorkshire Police to suggest any extra changes.

Updated: 09:09 Saturday, June 05, 2004