AN INQUEST into the death of a BBC journalist has been postponed following a request by her former employers, it has emerged.

Craig Robinson

AN INQUEST into the death of a BBC journalist has been postponed following a request by her former employers, it has emerged.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the organisation have forced a last-minute adjournment of next week's hearing into the shooting of producer Kate Peyton, who lived at Beyton, near Bury St Edmunds.

Last night her brother, Chris, said the delay was a waste of time and money.

“More than three years after Kate's death, it seems that we're going to need wait a few more months to settle these questions in the coroner's court,” he said.

“It has surprised us all that, with all its resources, the BBC continues to find the issues we have been raising so difficult to process.

“More money and time is, of course, being wasted by this delay. If nothing else, we hope this will mean that when the inquest finally takes place it will explore all of the relevant issues in a full, frank and fearless way, as is clearly required by law.”

Ms Peyton died in Somalia after she was shot in the country's capital Mogadishu on February 9, 2005.

An inquest into the 39-year-old's death was due to be heard next week at the Athenaeum in Bury St Edmunds.

But a spokeswoman for the Greater Suffolk Coroner Dr Peter Dean last night said a formal application had been made by the BBC for the hearing to be postponed for legal reasons.

At the inquest, Ms Peyton's family - mother Angela, brother Charles, sister Rebecca and fiancé Roger Koy - are set to express their anguish at the loss of their loved one and question the BBC about the circumstances in which she was sent into the war zone.

The family is also to call on the BBC to review the steps it takes to ensure journalists are prepared and protected before they are sent into high-risk situations.

A new date for the inquest has not yet been decided.

A spokeswoman for the BBC said they were unable to comment because of legal reasons but confirmed the inquest had been postponed.