Home Secretary David Blunkett has criticised remarks made by a Birmingham coroner at the opening of an inquest into the death of a teenage girl.

Birmingham coroner Aidan Cotter appealed to the black community to co-operate with the police.

He said the community should "pay back" for the tolerance it had been shown as he adjourned the inquest into the death of one of the teenage girls shot dead over the New Year.

Mr Blunkett said everyone had to be careful with their choice of language.

Mr Cotter appealed to the black community

An inquest was opened and adjourned on Thursday into the death of Charlene Ellis, 18, who died with her cousin after attending a party at a hairdressing salon in the Aston area of the city.

On Thursday, Mr Cotter said Birmingham had been dedicated to accommodating people of all cultures and religions and it was now time for the black community to give something back in turn.

"It is time for your community to pay back and conform with our belief, which is that everybody has a duty to co-operate with the police, to make sure the murderers are caught and they are not given protection by their friends or even their families," he said.

Mr Cotter told Charlene's family he would be writing to Mr Blunkett asking him to spend more money on tackling escalating gun crime in Birmingham.

Severe sentence

Mr Blunkett said people had a responsibility to help the police.

"I don't think anyone should talk about pay back because we, they are, part of a cohesive community, we are in this together, we are citizens of the same country," he said.

"In each neighbourhood people have a responsibility to help the police and to help the criminal justice system capture and demonstrate to the rest of the community that that capture will lead to very very severe sentence indeed"

After the inquest Mr Cotter said he regretted the language that he had used.

"If I used language less carefully than I should, I regret it," he said.

"But to interpret it as saying that I was criticising the black community as against the white community is nonsense.

"That is not what I said. That is not what I believe."

Danger of drugs

Mr Cotter said he also wanted children as young as eight to be taught about the danger of drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

"Instead of having placards telling people to stop smoking, someone needs to tell the truth and say that heroin and cocaine are far more serious and cause huge problems," he said.

Charlene's family have been told they will not be able to hold a funeral for several weeks.

Mr Cotter said her body could not be released to the family in case lawyers representing the potential killer demanded a second post-mortem examination.

An inquest into the death of Latisha Shakespeare, 17, is due to be opened and adjourned on Friday.