Coroner asks police to carry out further inquiries after father of boy who killed himself says he has potential new witnesses

Asad Khan was found by his mother, Farheen Khan, after she had to force her way through the locked door to his bedroom at their home in Tile Street, off Whetley Lane, on September 28 last year.

An inquest into his death, opened on October 3, heard that Asad had been reluctant to attend his new school, Beckfoot Upper Heaton School, where he had been a pupil for just three weeks.

The same day, thousands of people attended the young boy’s funeral, with many mourners wearing T-shirts carrying anti-bullying messages.

A pre-inquest review at Bradford Coroners Court heard this week that statements had been obtained from a number of people in the aftermath of Asad’s death, including his parents, paramedics who attended the house, a pathologist, and a consultant radiologist.

The court also heard that a police investigation into Asad’s death had involved speaking to a number of staff and pupils at his school.

Coroner Martin Fleming said officers had found no CCTV evidence to substantiate claims that Asad had been physically attacked in the school playground on the day of his death.

He said: “There is nothing at all to suggest, in accordance with the witnesses police have spoken to, that an incident had taken place involving bullying.

“It seems that police have looked at that video footage for the day, and there’s no evidence to say it happened.”

Speaking through a police liaison officer, Asad’s father, Mahmood Asif, said the family would like “a handful” of his son’s friends to attend and give evidence at the inquest as they had all given the same account that he was being bullied, and provided “more than one voice”.

He said he believed Asad was being bullied for “a week or two weeks” leading up to his death.

The court also heard that Asad’s mother had raised concerns he was doing homework for other children since starting at his new school.

The police liaison officer told the court: “Leading up to Asad’s death, mum had seen Asad doing quite a lot of homework.

“Mum quizzed him saying 'why have you got so much homework?' and he said he was doing it for somebody and he was going to get a small payment for it.”

After Mr Fleming said he would not be calling every possible child witness to court given the limited scope of his inquiry, Mr Asif said the family had two new potential witnesses who had not yet spoken to police.

The police liaison officer said: “Dad is saying that he potentially has two more witnesses that have come to light after the investigation who are prepared to come and give their witness evidence. They are from the local mosque where Asad was a pupil on an evening.”

Speaking directly to the court, Mr Asif said one of the children had told him that Asad confided in him at mosque that “somebody is bullying me at school,” but had refused to give any names.

He said the other witness had told him that he had spoken to Asad at school and heard him say to a teacher: “Somebody bully me, somebody trouble me. Why no action?”

He said the witnesses had come to his attention around the time of his son’s funeral, but police said they could not progress the investigation as they didn’t have the full names and details of the witnesses in question.

Mr Fleming said it was “disappointing” that potentially important new evidence had only been revealed during the hearing, but agreed to adjourn the hearing for a further pre-inquest review to allow the relevant police investigations to take place.

He said: “What I’m prepared to do in this case is take on the family’s concerns and adjourn this to another pre-inquest review date, and in that time the police will liaise with you on my behalf to see whether or not these witnesses can be of any assistance.

“If they are relevant to my limited scope then I’ll consider them as witnesses, otherwise not. But I can only make that call when I’ve seen the evidence, and right now, I’m not privy to it.”

The hearing will resume on February 27.