I discovered my baby’s body was missing from coffin... after 42 years
Mother vows to continue battle over son’s remains
A MOTHER who fought for 42 years to find out what happened to her baby son’s remains has discovered his coffin was buried without a body in it.
Lydia Reid always suspected organs and tissue had been removed from her son, Gary Paton, who died aged seven days in 1975.
The 68-year-old was granted a court order for an exhumation to be carried out at her son’s burial plot in Edinburgh last week but no human remains were found.
The exhumation, conducted by respected forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black, unearthed only a shawl, a hat, a cross and a name tag.
Professor Black concluded there were no human remains or signs of decomposition in the burial plot at Saughton Cemetery in Edinburgh.
It is understood Police Scotland has launched an investigation following her findings.
Last night, Miss Reid said she was always convinced the coffin she carried in 1975 did not contain her son’s body.
‘I began to suspect when they wouldn’t let me see Gary. I kept asking until they showed me a baby,’ she said.
‘But it wasn’t my baby – this baby was a big blonde baby and Gary was small and dark. They explained away all my questions by telling me a lot of people suffered from post-natal depression.
‘On the day of the funeral I decided I was going to carry the coffin – but it felt empty, like it had nothing inside at all.’
Miss Reid was a leading figure in the campaign to expose how hospitals had unlawfully retained dead children’s body parts for research.
NHS Scotland was forced to admit the practice was commonplace following an investigation into organ retention at Liverpool’s Alder Hey hospital in the 1990s.
It emerged that around 6,000 organs and tissues were retained by Scottish hospitals between 1970 and 2000, many from children. After seeing her suspicions proven correct, Miss Reid says she will now fight on to find out what really became of her baby son.
She added: ‘For years I’ve had so many people and even family members telling me I’m wrong and so many people doubting me. In a way, I wanted to be proved wrong because I wanted Gary to be whole and be at rest.
‘There’s no feeling of closure after all this – I see this as the beginning. This has given me the right to fight on and to go and find him, or at least learn what happened to him. The next step is to start legal action and to ask for all the documents relating to what happened at the time.’
Speaking to the BBC about the contents of grave, Professor Black said: ‘We had wool, cotton and even a little cross, all preserved incredibly well – but there were no human remains. There was no baby in the coffin.
‘There is no other answer because you never get that level of preservation of coffin and not have a body be preserved.’
Miss Reid believes there may be dozens of cases similar to her own, adding: ‘Hopefully, this will lead to others finally finding out what happened to their babies.’
NHS Lothian deputy chief executive Jim Crombie said: ‘Our condolences are with the family of Gary Paton.
‘This matter is now being looked into by the police and we are unable to comment further.’
‘It’s given me the right to fight on’