Did police know of Alice killer’s past conviction, family demands

THE f a mily o f murdered L o ndon schoolgirl Alice Gross were today demanding an inquiry into whether the British authorities knew her killer was a convicted murderer.

Latvian Arnis Zalkalns killed 14-yearold Alice, from Hanwell, last August and weighed down her body with a tree trunk in the River Brent. The builder, 41, was found hanged in woodland less than two miles away. He had been allowed into Britain in 2007 despite a conviction in Latvia for murdering his wife and hiding her body.

Alice’s family want the inquest into her death to find out whether the British authorities knew of his past. West London coroner Chinyere Inyama was expected to decide on this today.

The human rights organisation Liberty, which is repre se n t i n g Al ic e ’s family, has asked the coroner to consider whether the case is covered by Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights — the right to life. Emma Nor ton, a solicitor for Liberty, said: “The state has a positive obligation to protect people from a known risk, in this case someone who was a violent offender. What happened to Alice appears to have come about, in part, because the authorities knew nothing about this man. Alice’s family want to know why this was the case. Did an information-sharing system break down? Does it even exist? Whatever the answer, they want to do something about it.”

In 2009 Zalkalns was arrested over an alleged indecent assault of a 14-yearold girl in west London. It is not known whether police in that inquiry knew of his conviction. The case was dropped as the girl did not make a statement.