Inquiry into Norwegian girl's death concluded

The conclusions of the magisterial inquiry into the death of 14-year old Norwegian Line Marie Andersen have been forwarded to the Attorney General's office.

Antoinette Micallef, from the Attorney General's office, said the conclusions were passed to the office last week and it was now up to the attorney general to decide whether any action should be taken.

"The evidence produced in the inquiry and the magistrate's findings are now being considered and assessed by this office to determine what further action, if any, may be necessary.

"At this stage, the process precludes this office from releasing a copy of the proces verbal," Ms Micallef said.

Andersen, who was on her first trip to Malta, was admitted to hospital on July 29 and died a few days later. The post-mortem concluded that the cause of death was an intracranial haemorrhage.

She had earlier felt sick and collapsed at St Aloysius College where she was attending English language classes.

Her death caused a storm in the Norwegian media, which raised questions over whether the girl was given the right treatment at St Luke's hospital. They also questioned whether she had taken any drugs before collapsing.

A spokesman for the family had said there were still a lot of question marks in connection with the case, especially since a lot of "contradictory statements" had been made in the hours and days following the girl's collapse.

The Health Division said yesterday that its own internal investigation into Andersen's death had been concluded some time ago, but stressed that its results would only be made public once the details of the magisterial inquiry were known.