Help offered over empty baby coffin

Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to help a mother who found her baby’s coffin empty after 42 years in her quest for answers.

The First Minister said she would see what assistance her government could offer to Lydia Reid, 68, who discov- ered her son’s coffin was buried in 1975 with no body in it.

Ms Reid was granted a court order for an exhumation at his burial plot in Edinburgh in August but no human remains were found.

The case was raised at First Minister’s Questions by Gordon Lindhurst, Conservative MSP for the Lothian region.

Extending her sympathies to Ms Reid, Ms Sturgeon said: “The relevant minister will be happy to meet with Lydia Reid to see what the Scottish Government or our agencies can do.”