An expert is to be employed to help look into the circumstances surrounding the death of a railway worker who died with Covid-19 after allegedly being spat at by a man who said he had coronavirus, a court has heard.

Belly Mujinga, 47, died on April 5 last year with coronavirus after she was reportedly coughed on and spat at days earlier by a customer at London’s Victoria station.

North London coroner Andrew Walker told a preliminary hearing at Barnet Coroner’s Court that “causation” would be a starting point in helping to plot what areas may need to be be covered at the inquest into Mrs Mujinga’s death.

He said that an expert would be needed to deal with the possible causes of the Covid infection that led to Mrs Mujinga’s death in the first phase of his “step-by-step” approach to setting up the inquest.

The expert, who is to be selected in the next month, could be a specialist in respiratory medicine, public health or an area that straddles both disciplines, the court heard.

The amount of traffic and passengers going through the station could be an area that is useful for the hearing, and the court would seek to find any CCTV footage of the scene.

British Transport Police (BTP) interviewed a 57-year-old man over the incident but said there was not enough evidence that a crime had taken place.

There were two other employees who became unwell while working at the station, one who died from a Covid infection and another who became ill with Covid-19 like symptoms, according to a previous statement from the coroner’s office.

This Is Local London: Lusamba Katalay (third from left), the husband of Belly Mujinga, joins activists at a vigil at Victoria stationLusamba Katalay (third from left), the husband of Belly Mujinga, joins activists at a vigil at Victoria station

The coroner said that no passengers who were at the station could currently be identified.

Mrs Mujinga graduated with a degree in journalism and became the first female sports journalist in her home country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Lawyers for the Mujinga family have said she left the African country for “security reasons” and settled in the UK before marrying her husband and giving birth to their daughter Ingrid, who is now 12.

Mrs Mujinga was working as a sales clerk at the time of the confrontation on the station concourse on March 21 and died on April 5 after contracting Covid-19.

A date for the inquest has yet to be set.