The parents of murdered schoolgirl Alice Gross have said they are "concerned, bewildered and angry" after the coroner investigating her death left a police file on a train.
Chinyere Inyama, the senior west London coroner, lost the 30-page police file in November last year, a month after 14-year-old Alice's body was found in a river in the capital.
Police tried to recover the file, which contained evidence against suspect Arnis Zalkalns, but concluded it had probably been ‘destroyed as waste’.
Alice's mother and father, Ros Hodgkiss and Jose Gross, have now demanded to know why they had not been told about the loss.
Alice's parents, Jose Gross and Ros Hodgkiss, said they have been left 'bewildered and angry' after the police and coroner failed to tell them the file had been lost (Getty)
In a joint statement they said: "We have looked to the police and coroner to help us through our awful loss.
“Yet now we learn they - either independently or together - have withheld from us the loss of this terribly sensitive information about Alice.
"We are extremely concerned, bewildered and angry and we have asked for a full written explanation as to what exactly happened and why we were not told."
The Ministry of Justice is now investigating the file's loss and why it was ever taken from the coroner's office.
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Alice disappeared from her home in Hanwell, west London, last August, sparking Scotland Yard's biggest search operation since the July 7 London bombings.
Her body was found weighted down in the Grand Union Canal in Ealing, west London on September 30.
Zalkalns, 41, was found hanged days later in Boston Manor Park, west London.
Police later said the Latvian, who had previously served seven years for murdering his wife in his home country, would have been charged with Alice's murder if he had still been alive.
The search for Alice was the largest police operation since the July 7 terrorist attack (Getty)
An inquest into Alice's death was opened and adjourned last October.
The vital document, given to the coroner to help with preparations for the inquests into the deaths, was lost a month later.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "In November 2014 the MPS was informed by HM Coroner, London West, that he had inadvertently disposed of a single document relating to the police evidence against Arnis Zalkalns.
"An investigation to recover it was undertaken. This concluded that it was highly likely it had been destroyed as waste."
The Ministry of Justice said of the loss: "This clearly appears to be a troubling incident. A full investigation is now under way."
A full inquest into Alice's death is due to be held at the end of November or the beginning of December, and Mr Inyama reserved judgment on whether it will be a jury inquest.
He is expected to hand down his ruling on the scope of the inquest in the next week.
Additional reporting by PA
