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QUESTIONS were raised yesterday over the authenticity of documents which were handed over to a Coroner who had reopened his investigation into last year's fatal explosion at the Castle Peak power station.

  The Coroner's Officer, Clive Grossman QC, said he was concerned to establish whether a report drawn up by the station's owners into the cause of the blast and delivered to Coroner Warner Banks was both genuine and unedited.

  He was speaking at the resumption of an inquest into the deaths of two men - Yip Ka-pui, 40, and Wong Kwong-yu, 38 - who were killed outright in the blast in August 1992.

  The jury at the original inquest returned verdicts of accidental death. It subsequently came to light that the power station's owners had drawn up reports into the cause of the explosion which were not made available to the jury.

  Of particular interest was a document known as the Blue Report.

  In the witness box yesterday was Patrick Sherrington, a partner in Lovell, White, Durrant solicitors, which acts for one of the power station's owners, China Light and Power (CLP).

  Mr Grossman asked Mr Sherrington about a letter he had written to the Attorney-General after the existence of the Blue Report had become known. In that letter, Mr Sherrington made representations on behalf of CLP on why the inquest should not be reopened.

  Mr Sherrington asserted that CLP considered a particular report into the cause of the blast as ''privileged''. That meant that the company possessed the legal right to prevent it being handed over to anyone.

  Mr Sherrington's letter went on to assert that the reason the report was privileged was because it was private and contained information which might incriminate people.

  However, in a subsequent and dramatic development, the Blue Report was handed over to Mr Banks by CLP's counsel after a summons was issued.

  Mr Grossman said: ''Me and the Coroner have read the Blue Report and we have not found anything that would justify such a claim [of incrimination]. That has led us to wonder whether the report to which you refer is the same Blue Report that has been handed to us.''   Mr Grossman went on to ask that if the Blue Report handed to the Coroner was the same as the Blue Report referred to in Mr Sherrington's letter, then could Mr Sherrington identify which elements of it could incriminate anyone.

  Mr Sherrington declined to answer the question after seeking advice from CLP's counsel, Michael Beloff QC. However, he added that as far as he understood, the report given to the Coroner and the one to which he referred were identical.

  Mr Banks then asked: ''You have already informed the Attorney-General that your clients were entitled to claim privilege on the basis of self-incrimination. On what parts of the Blue Report did you base your advice or your statement to the Attorney-General?   ''All that you are being asked is to point out in the documents where you consider there to be self-incrimination.''   Mr Sherrington replied: ''When I looked through this document, there were self-critical passages in it.''   Mr Beloff, for CLP, then said: ''His questions are designed to elicit for the benefit of the jury whether they have the authentic Blue Report.''   Mr Sherrington was the first of several witnesses to be called during the hearing, which is expected to last until Tuesday. He took the stand after more than four hours of legal argument, which the press was banned from reporting until after the hearing ends.

  In court were representatives of CLP and Exxon Energy Ltd, which jointly own the Castle Peak Power Company, which in turn owns the power plant that exploded. Also watching proceedings were the widows of the two dead men, Wong To Sau-heung and Yip Au Lai-chun.

  Earlier, Mr Banks told the jury that the Attorney-General ordered the reopening of the hearing when it became known that documents were not made available at the original inquest. He said there was concern that these might have had a bearing on the verdicts of accidental death originally returned by the jury.

  The documents, including the Blue Report, were subsequently given to Mr Banks so he could decide whether they were relevant. Upon reading them, he decided to re-empanel the jury so they could hear the evidence they contained and listen to witnesses who would be recalled to be questioned in the light of the documents' contents.

  Mr Banks said the jury would then be asked to consider whether they felt they ought to change their original verdict.

  He also warned the jury to approach the hearing with an open mind.

  ''It is of the utmost importance, members of the jury, that you ignore everything that you have heard or read in the news media because whatever you may have heard or read in the news media at most can only amount to allegations,'' Mr Banks said.

  ''The Attorney-General, in writing to me ordering that the inquest be reopened, stated important relevant facts may not have been before you at the original inquest.''   Mr Banks went on to tell the jury that they should not concern themselves with the reasons why CLP did not produce the documents at the original hearing - that was beyond the scope of an inquest. They should limit themselves to ascertaining the true identity of the deceased, the date and place of death, the medical cause of death and a verdict on the death.

  ''Simply because this inquest has been reopened does not mean you have to change your verdict. Your verdict depends entirely on the facts you hear in this court,'' he said.

  ''This is a court of inquiry. It is not an adversarial court. It does not have the power of inquiry into matters of liability.''   The hearing continues.



QC probes Blue Report authenticity