Body of Darren Sutherland exhumed ahead of inquest

Sutherland celebrates victory over Alfonso Blanco Parra in Beijing

The body of Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland has been exhumed from a cemetery in County Meath.

The 27-year-old Irish middleweight, who won bronze at the Beijing Olympics, was found hanged in his London flat by manager Frank Maloney last September.

The Metropolitan Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious.

The body was taken to a Navan hospital for a second post mortem examination, which was requested by his family ahead of an inquest later this year.

Sutherland's family did not go into detail about their call for another post-mortem, but said they would "assist in putting all relevant matters before the coroner".

Sutherland turned professional a few months after winning a bronze medal at the 2008 Games, winning his first four four fights.

He secured Ireland's third boxing medal in Beijing by beating world silver medallist Alfonso Blanco Parra, before being beaten by eventual gold medallist, Britain's James de Gale.

Meath County Council granted a licence to have the boxer's remains dug up from St Finian's Cemetery in Navan.

A statement from the Sutherland family, read by their solicitor, said: "Whilst they are not at liberty to go into the specific reasons for their application given the pending coronial inquest into their late son's death, they feel that the conduct of a second post-mortem into Darren's death will only assist in putting all relevant matters before the coroner when the inquest into Darren's death is reconvened later this year.

"They are firmly of the view that the only forum for determining the facts surrounding Darren's death is through the judicial process and not otherwise."