Police apologise to family of Shropshire killer’s victim
Friday 9th September 2011, 1:00PM BST.
Brian Coles' body was found at his home in Higher Heath, near Whitchurch, in October 1994
POLICE HAVE apologised to the family of one of the victims of Shrewsbury killer Robin Ligus after their initial investigation failed to treat the death as suspicious.
In July a jury found Ligus, 59, responsible for the death of Brian Coles, 57, in Shropshire in 1994.
His body was found in October that year at his home near Whitchurch. At the same hearing Ligus was also found to be responsible for killing Trevor Bradley in 1994. He was already serving a prison sentence for murdering Robert Young.
But today police revealed they have now apologised to the family of Mr Coles because the initial investigation did not treat his death as suspicious until several days after his body was found because of inconsistencies in the management of the original crime scene.
Mr Coles’s body was found at the foot of his stairs. Simon Chesterman, temporary deputy chief constable of West Mercia Police, said this afternoon he had met Mr Coles’s cousin Peter.
He said: “As well as apologising to the Coles family for the quality of the 1994 investigation, I thanked them for the dignified manner in which they conducted themselves throughout what must have been a long ordeal for them.”
Peter Coles said: “I would like to thank Mr Chesterman for meeting with me and for the letter of apology. I would also like to thank Andy Parsons and his team for bringing the case to a conclusion. ”
Ligus will be sentenced for the deaths of Mr Coles and Mr Bradley at Birmingham Crown Court on September 23.
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