A Home Office investigation is being carried out into the death of a Shipley woman whose body was discovered in a pile of rubbish in London.

Home Office Minister John Denham has asked officials to examine the case of Kelly Pearson, 30, who was escorted hundreds of miles from her home to London by police on warrant which was later found to have expired.

Horseferry Road Magistrates Court clerks realised the error when she arrived in the building and she was left without the means to get home.

The following day, in November 1999, she was found dead from a drugs overdose in Soho.

Her heartbroken mother Jean Pearson, of Dewhirst Close, Baildon, waited two and a half years for her daughter's inquest to be held but felt the eventual hearing in April left many questions unanswered.

At the inquest it was heard that Kelly was dismissed from the court in a confused and distressed state. She telephoned her mother wanting to come home.

Coroner Dr Stephen Chan, who recorded a verdict of misadventure, said that Mrs Pearson was owed "a very big apology indeed" and said he expected an inquiry to go ahead.

Shipley MP Chris Leslie, who has taken up the case on the family's behalf, passed details to the Home Office, asking if a new inquest or a public inquiry would be appropriate.

Mr Denham, who is the minister with responsibility for the police, should give his verdict later this month.

A spokesman for Mr Leslie said: "We are waiting for a response from the Home Office as to how to proceed to get the answers that Mrs Pearson wants."

For a new inquest to go ahead, the Attorney General and the High Court would have to consent to it in the interests of justice.

Mrs Pearson said she has spent hours every day writing letters and making phone calls to MPs, health chiefs, the probation service and various watchdogs to try to find out why and how she lost her daughter.

She said: "There was a lack of communication between various bodies, it is a mish- mash from beginning to end.

"I have been blocked at every turn."

Mrs Pearson's solicitor Sehra Desai, of Tuckers Solicitors in London, is pursuing a claim against the West Yorkshire, Metropolitan and British Transport police forces and the Inner London Magistrates Courts for negligence and/or false imprisonment.

Mrs Desai said: "If a settlement is not reached before November 8, 2002, legal proceedings shall be issued in the County Court."