Why did cops secretly keep my baby’s organs?
MUM’S FIGHT SET TO OPEN FLOODGATES FOR 100S OF FAMILIES
MURDER victims’ families are suing police for secretly retaining body parts in a move that could trigger a multi-million pound mass payout.
Hundreds of families could be awarded thousands of pounds each after police kept relatives’ organs such as hearts, limbs and brains long after investigations into their deaths ended.
The remains were stored for evidence but relatives were not told.
Mum Janine Aldridge, whose fiveweek-old daughter Leah was shaken to death by her father in 2002, is the first to sue over the controversy.
She had to hold three burials for Leah after new body parts were discovered.
Janine, 32, said: “For years I was tormented by the images of parts of my little girl on dusty shelves in forgotten laboratories. I felt as though she was lost.”
She is one of at least four families seeking compensation for distress from Greater Manchester Police.
If successful it could open the door for hundreds of families to take action against police after forces across Britain admitted storing almost
500 parts and organs, the oldest dating back to 1960.
The action could involve some highprofile murder cases. Remains of 12 victims of serial killer Dr Harold Shipman were burnt in 2011 without the knowledge of their relatives.
And the remains of Pauline Reade, 16, the first victim of Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, were stored without her family’s permission.
Legal experts say families could be in line for payouts of thousands each for distress – grieving families whose babies’ organs were kept in the Alder Hey Hospital scandal were awarded £5,000.
Janine has a dossier of her baby’s missing organs and tissues, documents she collected through Freedom of Information requests and postmortem papers.
The parts include all Leah’s internal organs – brain, kidneys, liver, heart – plus bone, spinal cord, hair and fingernails.
Janine said: “We basically buried a shell.”
A second grieving mum, Jenny Shaw, intends to sue for compensation in the New Year because police kept parts of her son John Culshaw, 26, after he was stabbed to death 16 years ago. The
Sunday People know of two other families intent on legal action. They have asked not to be named at this stage.
Janine’s daughter Leah had a cold and was not sleeping when she was shaken to death by her father Andrew Ashurst.
He was jailed for three years for manslaughter.
Leah’s body was returned to the family for burial but in 2017 Janine was horrified to learn that parts were missing. A second funeral was held which involved
disturbing the body of Janine’s brother Paul, who died of septicaemia aged 35 and was in the same grave. A third service had to be held last year after more of Leah was discovered in storage.
Mum-of-three Janine, of Atherton, Lancs, said: “I had to live through the trauma of losing my daughter to her own dad, then had to relive the nightmare over and over again at her funerals.
Distress
“But my primary concern is this should never happen to any other family.
“I’m suing police for the distress that they have caused to me and my family. It’s been absolutely heartbreaking.”
Jenny Shaw also buried a shell body after police kept her son’s kidney, penis, stomach, liver and toe-clippings following his fatal stabbing in 1993. The family were told some of John’s remains had been kept at a forensic services lab in Birmingham, which was due to close.
Mum-of-four Jenny, 75, from Hindley, Lancs, says: “We have suffered injustice after injustice. This is like a nightmare that won’t go away.
“My son was stabbed through the heart and I have had to ask, ‘Where is my son’s heart?’ To this day, I still don’t know.
“The police told us that ‘tissue samples’ had been retained, but then we read the long list of body parts. This cannot be swept under the carpet and hushed up.”
Police first revealed in 2012 that 492 organs and limbs had been kept by forces across England, Wales and Northern
Ireland without the knowledge of the victim’s families. One case dated back to 1960. Forces with the largest numbers of retained body parts included the London Metropolitan Police, which kept 39, Merseyside 37, Cambridgeshire 35 and West Midlands 30. British Transport Police kept 25.
But the true numbers could be thousands because the figures did not include smaller tissue samples, fingernails or hair taken at postmortems.
And in 2017 Greater Manchester Police admitted they held 180 samples. They were kept in mortuaries, police buildings and hospitals without the permission of relatives and after investigations had concluded. Police say there is a legal requirement to keep human body tissue samples after a postmortem in murder cases or suspicious deaths. Parts can be stored until the convicted prisoner has served his sentence.
But the samples uncovered in the 2012 report related to cases no longer under investigation. It is not the first time authorities have preserved and stored body parts.
The first organ scandal broke in 1999 when it emerged Bristol Royal Infirmary had kept hearts and other parts from 170 children over decades.
Liverpool’s Alder Hey Hospital was exposed for keeping parts from 850 children between 1998 and 1995.
These led to the 2004 Human Tissue Act, which makes it illegal to use tissue for transplantation without the dead person’s prior permission and ensures relatives are asked permission over storage.
Tim Annett, partner and specialist lawyer at Irwin Mitchell representing Janine, said: “The way this case has been dealt with has caused significant additional distress to Janine and we are seeking to obtain redress for her.” Greater Manchester Police said: “One family have made a complaint and this is subject to an investigation by GMP’S Professional Standards Branch. Officers continue to maintain regular contact with Janine Aldridge.
“It would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this stage.”
Leading family law expert James Maguire said: “These cases could open the floodgates for other families who found themselves in a similar position.”
Where is my stabbed son’s heart? To this day I do not know