Family of murdered dad denied funeral for 5 months
A MURDER victim’s family have criticised their ‘barbaric’ fivemonth wait for a funeral because his body has not been released.
Paul Mathieson, 37, died in January after being attacked in the street.
But the father of one, from Renfrew, has still not been laid to rest because of Scotland’s post-mortem rules.
His grieving sister, Amanda Digby, has called for a law change to allow murder victims’ funerals to be held sooner.
In May, 36-year-old Jamie Anderson, from Paisley, Renfrewshire, was charged with the murder.
The family of Mr Mathieson had been advised soon after his death that it could be weeks or months before his body was returned to them. This is standard practice in Scotland to allow the defence the opportunity for a second postmortem in the event of a trial.
Mrs Digby, a 36-year-old nurse, has now started a petition asking ministers to change the system in line with English procedure.
South of the Border, a second independent autopsy is carried out automatically if nobody has been charged after 28 days.
She said: ‘It has been awful. There has been no closure to this horrible situation.
‘We have all gradually returned to work, because we were just sitting at home grieving, but the funeral is still hanging over us.
‘The thought of Paul lying in a mortuary is horrendous. It’s been nearly half a year already.
‘I agree with the right to a fair trial and the right for a defence post-mortem. My objection is why can’t this be carried out independently to allow the release of a body for burial or cremation?’
Her petition – lodged at Holyrood – says: ‘It seems barbaric to allow my relative, and the relatives of others in similar situations, to decompose in a mortuary for the right of the defence to have a postmortem carried out.’
Mrs Digby said it will still be weeks before her brother’s body is released while the defence decides whether to request a second exam.
Scotland also has a shortage of pathologists to carry them out. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is revising Scotland’s post-mortem system to reduce the number of procedures carried out – but it will not look at bringing in rules to provide a second post-mortem if no arrest is made within 28 days.
Instead, the new protocol is likely to mean that in most murder cases a single postmortem will be considered sufficient where there is no doubt on the cause of death.
But this would still leave families waiting until an arrest has been made and a defence team has been put in place for their loved one’s body to be released.
The review was prompted by the death of Shaun Woodburn, who died after he was punched outside an Edinburgh bar early on New Year’s Day last year.
His attacker, Mohammed Ibnomer, then 17, was sentenced to four years’ detention for culpable homicide.
Mr Woodburn’s family expressed anger at the legal system, which meant his body was not released because Ibnomer’s defence had requested a second examination of the body. The funeral took place a month after his death. A COPFS spokesman said: ‘We can confirm that COPFS is working with forensic pathologists on a revised postmortem examination protocol that may reduce the number of post-mortem examinations instructed by the defence.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The impact of the loss of a loved one is devastating and our sympathies go out to the family members and friends of Paul Mathieson.’
He added: ‘The Crown Office has confirmed that it is working with forensic pathologists on a revised post-mortem examination protocol, which may reduce the number of post-mortem examinations instructed by the defence.
‘Although a matter for the Lord Advocate, we very much support work designed to minimise the potential trauma experienced by families of victims.’
‘Funeral is still hanging over us’