Jamaica

London, Apr 12 (UNI) A full hearing into the death of the late Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer will start on April 23, Jamaican officials announced last night.

According to The Times, a Coroner, Patrick Murphy will hold the full hearing in Kingston on April 23, where testimony would be collected from as many as a dozen witnesses.

It will be the first time that a detailed account of what took place in Woolmer's final hours till the discovery of his body will be aired in public.

The 58-year-old Englishman was found dead by a housekeeper in Room number 374 of the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica on March 18, a day after Pakistan's shocking ouster from the Caribbean World Cup following a humiliating defeat at the hands of debutant Ireland.

Mystery still looms large over the cause of death as Ere Seshaiah, the Jamaican pathologist who performed the first autopsy on the coach's body, initially declared that the results were ''inconclusive'' but later shocked everyone by saying that Woolmer was ''manually strangled'' to death.

Meanwhile, experts in Britain are taking a deeper look at the CCTV footage of the 12th floor of the hotel where Woolmer's room was located.

However, media reports say that the footage was sent to a UK laboratory last week by Scotland Yard detectives who are in Jamaica assisting with the investigation. There have been also reports that the footage were not clear. But Jamaica's Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields has denied the claim and said he could easily identify people who traversed the corridor of the 12th floor that night.

Two Pakistani detectives have also arrived in Kingston to help the Jamaica police in the investigation. They have joined four Scotland Yard investigators and two Interpol forensic experts, who have been aiding in the probe for about two weeks.

''They will be here for as long as it takes,'' said Gilbert Scott, permanent secretary in Jamaica's Ministry of National Security, adding, ''they came at the request of the Caribbean island's government.'' UNI