Baby ashes boss snubs meeting to take holiday
THE crematorium boss at the centre of the baby ashes scandal missed a key council meeting yesterday because he was on holiday.
Pete Leonard, head of the council department which runs Aberdeen’s Hazlehead crematorium, once referred to infant cremation as the ‘slow cooking’ of babies.
Earlier this summer, former Lord Advocate Dame Elish Angiolini exposed shocking malpractice at crematoria across Scotland, but predominantly at Hazlehead.
Grieving parents expressed their ‘disgust’ after her report revealed ‘unethical and abhorrent practices’ at the crematorium, where babies were cremated with unrelated adults.
Aberdeen City Council chief executive Angela Scott presented reports on Dame Elish’s findings to councillors yesterday, saying the pain of bereaved families would stay with her ‘forever’. One council
‘Needs to be much more honesty’
report – accepting the majority of Dame Elish’s findings and setting out a plan for changes to crematoria practices – has been published.
But a secondary report, detailing an external investigation into the ‘operational and strategic responsibility’ of crematorium workers at the centre of the controversy, will be kept out of the public eye.
A summary of the secret report was shown to councillors yesterday but was then taken back.
It will remain unpublished because it contains confidential details of the conduct of staff – and councillors were given only about ten minutes to read a summary.
Despite the importance of the event, Mr Leonard – who normally attends full council meetings – was not present as he was on annual leave.
Last night Paul Wells, 42, who never received the ashes of his son Scott after he lost him to cot death in 2006, said Mr Leonard’s comments on ‘slow cooking’ babies had been ‘unbelievable’.
The painter and decorator from Garthdee, in Aberdeen, said: ‘There needs to be much more honesty and transparency around the whole process. We don’t know who’s to blame because we’re not getting the full details – and they need to be published.’
The secret report handed to councillors at the meeting was believed to relate to senior managers at the council.
Former Hazlehead crematorium boss Derek Snow was sacked from his job on June 28, 2014.
During Dame Elish’s investigation, Mr Leonard – director of communities, housing and infrastructure – referred to bodies of babies being left to ‘slow cook’.
Council leader Jenny Laing said of the report: ‘Every one of us would like nothing better than to make its contents known to the public.’
Earlier this week, Mrs Scott said that ‘any unauthorised disclosure would potentially breach fair employment practice under employment legislation and the Data Protection Act’.
In her public report, she sets out the changes she is implementing at the council in the wake of the scandal, saying it was ‘difficult to overestimate’ the impact of past practices at Hazlehead. She added that continued support would be offered to those affected.
‘It must also be acknowledged that these issues have had a profound effect on public trust and confidence in both the crematorium and the council more generally,’ she said.
The Mail revealed yesterday that prosecutors are examining Dame Elish’s findings.
The Crown Office is looking at the report, which focused mainly on Aberdeen, and may instruct police to launch an investigation.
Dame Elish’s 400-page National Cremation Investigation, published in June, revealed the bodies of youngsters up to two years old, foetuses and stillborn babies were regularly cremated alongside adult strangers in Aberdeen to save time – with family members told there were no remains to collect.
The scandal first emerged at Mortonhall, in Edinburgh, where staff had falsely told parents: ‘You don’t get ashes from a baby.’
An earlier 2014 report – also by Dame Elish – detailed how ashes at Mortonhall had simply been dumped in a mass grave.