An inquiry is needed into this awful death. It is needed right now

It has been almost three and a half years since Amanda Cox died on December 10, 2018.

Just 34, she is thought to have become ill and disorientated on her way back to her maternity ward at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after visiting her premature baby son in the neonatal unit.

Last week, the Crown Office announced there would be no Fatal Accident Inquiry into her death. It even sent out a press release to make sure we knew exactly how long it had taken to review reports, shuffle papers, put one file on top of another, unbend paper clips and finally, eventually, decide to do nothing at all.

There is something wrong in Scotland when we simply accept public servants, involved in investigating such tragedy, work with such languor and lack of urgency. Three years is actually pretty quick when many families waiting to discover how and why loved ones suddenly died must wait four or five years for a decision. Of course, even if white smoke slowly drifts from the chimney at 25 Chambers Street, any actual inquiry may not start for years after that.

It is utterly unacceptable but yet we accept it. Some deaths, however, raise such profound and grave questions that the slow, slow and stop pace of Scotland’s public life is simply untenable. The death of Louise Aitchison is one of them.

The lethal ineptitude of Police Scotland before her death is one of the most scandalous episodes in the recent history of Scotland’s criminal justice system. There were so many mistakes but, most crucially, officers were meant to warn Ms Aitchison of her new boyfriend’s violent history for weeks before he murdered her but did not, not even when, distressed, she called them to her flat on the night she died to help force him to leave. He would return, as he had promised, within the hour and kill her.

Ms Aitchison’s death raises many questions but we have no answers at all. Why did systems in place to protect her and women like her fail so catastrophically? How can they be improved? Were officers properly trained or blithely incompetent? Who knows? Police Scotland has offered its assurance that everything has been looked at, apologised for “shortcomings” and promised to make changes. There is, apparently, nothing to see here.

Even for Scotland where the only thing our politicians and public servants like more than talking about transparency is concealing inconvenient truths, this response seems inadequate and untested. It cannot stand. Ms Aitchison died two years ago and we should wait no longer to discover if there will be an inquiry into why.

There has rarely been such a clear and obvious need for an urgent FAI because, every day that passes without one, vulnerable women may remain at needless risk of potentially murderous violence.

A myth-busting book by Jane Monckton Smith, a far-sighted expert on domestic violence, will arrive with MSPS and our most senior law officers this week. She also believes this murder must be properly investigated, explained and learned from.

We hope the Lord Advocate and Solicitor General read the book but, before turning a page, before doing anything else, they should order a Fatal Accident Inquiry into the death of Louise Aitchison.