Mother finds baby’s coffin is empty after 40-year battle for the truth
Exhumation proves family was lied to and body was never placed inside
A mother’s 40-year hunt for the truth behind what happened to her dead baby’s remains has met with fresh heartache on discovering his coffin was buried with no body inside.
Lydia Reid, 68, has been trying to find out what happened to her son Gary Paton for 42 years after he died at Edinburgh’s Sick Kids Hospital in July 1975. He was just seven days old.
A court order was finally granted for an exhumation at the Saughton Cemetery burial plot, but there was no evidence a body had ever been in the coffin.
In an interview with the BBC, Ms Reid said the news was “devastating”.
“I wanted to prove the fact that he wasn’t there. Until I could prove that he wasn’t there I could not fight to find him,” she said. “I wanted to be wrong. I wanted to be called a stupid old woman, but the minute Sue lifted the shawl out of the ground I knew there was nothing in it.
“My heart hit my feet and I did not know what to say. It is devastating to know that all years I have been coming here to honour my son and he’s not been here. He deserves the respect of a proper burial.”
Ms Reid never had the chance to hold her baby and when she asked to see her son, she was shown a child that was not hers.
“I objected but they said I was suffering from post-natal depression, This baby was blonde and big, my baby was tiny and dark-haired. This was not my son.” Ms Reid has spent decades
campaigning to expose how hospitals unlawfully kept dead children’s body parts for research, following revelations of organ retention at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Hospital. She suspects her son’s organs were taken without permission but has never found proof.
Leading forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black conducted the exhumation, and concluded that the coffin was buried with no skeletal remains and there were no sign of decomposition.
Prof Black said: “Ultimately there is only one possible logical explanation and that is that the body was not put in that coffin.
“Lydia believed the baby in the grave may not be hers. The aim was to find bone for DNA analysis.”
The coffin was found about 6ft down and identified by a misspelt nameplate.
Prof Black, director of the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee, added: “Whenwefirstwentdowninto the grave site there was a lot of funeral clothing, so our expectation was that we had found what we were looking for.
“So 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. There is no hair inside the hat, there is no bone inside the coffin shroud.”
She added that the execution of the “burial” indicated this was not an isolated incident, and called for an investigation.
NHS Lothian said the matter had now been referred to the police.
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.”
“Ultimately there is only one possible logical explanation and that is that the body was not put in that coffin”
PROFESSOR SUE BLACK