The hearing scheduled for a nondescript courtroom in Chesterfield this week seemed destined to be unremarkable and procedural: the fourth in a series setting the scope of an inquest into the death of Maddy Cusack, a Sheffield United footballer who took her own life, more than 18 months ago.
But what unfolded was shocking and excruciating to behold for all those who expect the modern inquest system to guide grieving families subtly and compassionately through this most traumatic of processes.
From their seats in the front row of the coroner's court, Ms Cusack's bereft parents looked up at the face of their daughter's former manager Jonathan Morgan, who is at the centre of the investigation into her death, as, by video-link, he tore into the list of witnesses proposed for the inquest.