Discovery her son’s body had been buried with limbs missing
ceremonial red tunic, white gloves and black boots. On October 19, Mrs Janes was driven to a London chapel of rest to see her son’s body for the first time, but she only glimpsed his head and shoulders as the coffin lid was only moved partway. Afterwards, his coffin was screwed shut.
She then drove in convoy with the undertakers from Albin’s chapel of rest to a local firm, Caring Lady of Hove. Wanting to take a lock of her son’s hair, Mrs Janes asked undertaker Angela Spencer to unscrew the casket lid.
Mrs Janes, who has another son currently serving in Afghanistan, says when she looked inside Jamie’s coffin his hands and arms had ‘disappeared’. Her account is supported by Mrs Spencer.
In the front room of Mrs Janes’s terraced home in Portslade in Brighton, on the edge of the South Downs, photographs of Jamie in his uniform are all around and his beret, medals and ceremonial belt hold pride of place in a glass case.
On the coffee table, piles of documents attest to her three-year battle for answers from the MoD. ‘I wanted to bury all of Jamie,’ she said.
‘I think parts of him have been dumped somewhere. This is horrific, shocking. I won’t rest until I find out what they’ve done to him.’
Mrs Janes’s doubts began as soon as Jamie was flown home. She said: ‘I was introduced to a lot of officers at Jamie’s repatriation ceremony at RAF Lyneham. I asked a lot of questions, about the incident and the state of Jamie’s body.
‘Eventually, they told me he had lost his legs but that he had arms and hands. They seemed very awkward speaking to me.
‘As we got closer to the funeral, I was getting more and more suspicious about what had happened to Jamie and what state he was in. Jamie’s officers were being evasive so I wanted to see for myself.
‘I also wanted a lock of his hair. So I asked Angela if she would unscrew the coffin, we could cut off some hair and check the body ourselves.
‘Angela removed the lid of the coffin and felt down Jamie’s arms and looked inside his gloves as I was standing next to her. There was padding where Jamie’s arms and hands should have been. She said: “Jacqui, I am sorry. I would like to tell you his parts are there but they are not.”’
Mrs Spencer confirmed: ‘By feel and looking, I could tell there weren’t any limbs there. Removing parts of the body should not be part of the preparing or embalming process.’
Mrs Janes added: ‘I was devastated, as any mother would have been. What had they done with the rest of his body? I rang all the officers from Jamie’s battalion but I didn’t get any answers.
‘I received the post-mortem report in March 2010 and was horrified. What had happened to Jamie’s hands after they were inspected by Dr Hunt? I rang his office but I was told he was unwell.
‘Then I was watching the news last week and I heard that the Special Investigation Branch had been caught out retaining body tissue at the John Radcliffe Hospital, where Jamie was examined, and I thought: I am going to speak out publicly. I am not going to wait any longer for answers. As his mother, I am entitled to be told, even if it is an entirely appropriate process. What happened to these bits of him?’
A spokesman for the MoD said: ‘The MoD is dealing with this case as a matter of urgency and an investigation has been launched. Our foremost concern is always to support the families of the deceased and our thoughts and concerns remain with them. We make sure the return home of all our fallen comrades to their families is conducted with the utmost dignity and respect.’
The Mail on Sunday tried to contact Dr Hunt, but he was on holiday. A colleague at the Forensic Pathology Services said: ‘We spend a lot of time ensuring where possible that all body parts are repatriated with the deceased for burial or cremation. We certainly would not just throw body parts away.
A spokesman for Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the John Radcliffe, said: ‘Forensic post-mortem examinations on members of the Armed Forces killed in combat are undertaken under the jurisdiction of a Home Office coroner.
‘Tissue samples are stored in an entirely secure and respectful manner until no longer required by the coroner . . . and the families have expressed their wishes.’
A spokesman for Albin International declined to comment ‘due to the terms of our MoD contract’.