Family threaten court action to prevent invasive post-mortem

The law firm wrote to Ms Hassell to say they understood that “you have made the preliminary decision to order an invasive post-mortem”.

A year ago the High Court ruled Ms Hassell had operated a discriminatory policy by not recognising the validity of Muslim and Jewish requests to release bodies swiftly for religious reasons.

In 2015, the court also ruled against her when the judge upheld the religious rights of a Jewish family who wanted a non-invasive autopsy to be carried out on a relative rather than a surgical procedure.

Rabbi Asher Gratt, of the Adath Yisroel Burial Society, who has been instrumental in the campaign to have religious sensitivities respected by coroners, said it was “down-right reprehensible that Ms Hassell is again rearing her head to cause such terrible anguish for a bereaved family”.