A JURY will hear how Ealing schoolgirl Alice Gross was murdered when an inquest gets underway next June, the High Court ruled yesterday.

The 14-year-old from Hanwell was found dead in the River Brent in September last year.

Police appeared not to know the prime suspect in Alice’s disappearance had served seven years in a Latvian jail for murdering his wife.

Her family wants answers and lawyers arguing for an inquest said that Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights - which obliges governments to take steps to protect the lives of their citizens - was not fulfilled.

Rajeev Thacker, representing the family at a pre-inquest hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, told the court: “We are talking about the acts and omissions of a police force and a government body.

“The family submit it is important members of the public potentially affected by that have the opportunity to hear evidence, ask questions of witnesess and give their view of what, if anything, did go wrong.”

Police said in January that Latvian builder Arnis Zalkalns would have been charged with Alice’s murder if he were still alive.

He moved to the UK in 2007, two years after getting out of prison in his home country.

He was found hanged in Boston Manor Park, west London, four days after Alice's body was recovered, five weeks after she went missing.

UK police said they did not know about Zalkalns' murder conviction until after Alice went missing.

It emerged he had been arrested on suspicion of indecent assault on a 14-year-old girl in 2009, but no further action was taken in that case.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox told the court on Wednesday there would be a jury present when the inquest, which opened last October, resumes in June next year.

The inquest was transferred to Dr Wilcox last week after a major blunder in which sensitive documents from the case were left on a train.

Senior coroner Chinyere Inyama, who had been in charge of the hearing at West London coroner's court, requested the switch after he was heavily criticised for taking documents out of his office.