Peach inquiry 'will be full’

Press, 16 April 1980, Page 1

Peach inquiry 'will be full’

PA . Wellington The British Home Secretary (Mr William Whitelaw) said yesterday he was satisfied everything posSifife was being done to find out who killed the New Zealand schoolteacher, Blair Peach, last year. He said that a jury Inquest into Mr Peach’s death, to start next week, would be “very full and detailed” and aimed at establishing the true cause of his death. But Mr Whitelaw said he did not want to comment in advance on the proceedings. “The whole circumsances will be gone into fully at the inquest.” The delay in the proceedings was not the fault of the Home Office or the police, but was the result of action taken by solicitors acting for Mr Peach’s family. Mr Whitelaw said he did not get a report on Mr Peach’s death as Home

Secretary, but a report had gone to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who decided there was not sufficient evidence to charge anybody with causing Mr Peach’s death. Mr Whitelaw, making his first visit to New Zealand, had a busy day of meetings with the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) and other Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling), and addressed a combined meeting of the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Institute of International Affairs. On Britain’s role in the European Economic Community, he said there was a compelling need to bind the Western European democracies together. “At the same time we believe that not only our own interests, but the in-' terests of New Zealand, must be properly safeguarded,” Mr ■ Whitelaw said. • ■•