Now police called in after soldier’s body turns up in Hull morgue ten years after family thought they’d buried him

Christopher Alder, 37, choked to death while handcuffed and lying on the floor of a police station in Hull, in the early hours of April 1 1998.

It now appears a Hull pensioner called Grace Kamara was buried in his place in 2000.

Mrs Kamara is understood to have died from natural causes in 1999 but her burial was delayed and finally scheduled for Friday.

It appears the blunder was only discovered because her friends and family asked to see the body and Mr Alder’s remains were found in its place in the mortuary.

Yesterday Nicola Yates, chief executive of Hull City Council, apologised and launched an investigation.

Today she said the police were being brought in.

She said: “As chair of the multi-agency group dealing with the tragic circumstances around Grace Kamara and Christopher Alder, I have requested that the police undertake a criminal investigation into this extremely distressing case.

“As I said last night, I am appalled and distraught at what we have learned and my first priority has been to make sure the families involved are kept informed and given the necessary support.

“It is vital that the families and the public get a clear view of the facts and understand what happened. A thorough police investigation will make sure this happens.

“Now that the police are carrying out a formal investigation it would be inappropriate for me to comment further.

“I recognise that this has been very traumatic for everyone involved and I again offer my sincere sympathies to the families.”

Humberside Police’s chief constable Tim Hollis said the investigation will be carried out by the South Yorkshire force due to the sensitive history of the case.

Mr Hollis said: “Whilst the role of the police is to provide investigative support to the respective authorities I am, naturally, mindful of the strong association of Humberside Police with Christopher Alder’s name and his sad death.

“It is, therefore, my decision to invite South Yorkshire Police to provide a team of officers to undertake any necessary investigation into the circumstances that have come to light.

“On a personal note, my thoughts are with the family of Mrs Kamara who, at this time, still do not know the whereabouts of her body and to Christopher Alder’s family who have now been informed that Christopher’s body was not buried, as they believed, in November 2000.

“Officers from South Yorkshire Police will conduct the investigation, on behalf of Humberside Police.

“This investigation will examine the circumstances surrounding the retention and safe keeping of the bodies of Christopher Alder and Grace Kamara and their subsequent release for interment.”

In another statement, Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive Phil Morley said: “We realise how distressing this incident has been for the families of those concerned and our thoughts are with them.

“We also recognise that other members of the public may have concerns, however, following a full review this weekend the trust is confident that our systems for the identification and release of bodies from the mortuary are robust.

“It is extremely rare for a body to be retained for more than a few days in a mortuary. The normal process is to establish the cause of death, to formally identify the body and properly release the body to the family. This is usually done within 72 hours and the vast majority of bodies are only kept for this time period.

“All bodies upon release have to be correctly identified and signed out by both mortuary staff and those taking responsibility for the body.

“While this remains the subject of a criminal investigation we do not believe it is appropriate to comment further.”

Around 250 people attended the funeral of father-of-two Mr Alder, who served in the Falklands War, in 2000 in Hull’s Western Cemetery.

Today, his sister Janet Alder told the Yorkshire Post: “It just adds insult to injury. I am just so disgusted. How do you mistake a male for a female?”

She said she remembered thinking the coffin was small at the funeral as her brother was a “broad-shouldered” bloke.

A long-standing friend of Mrs Kamara, Christine Omoregie, said they were waiting for an exhumation to check it is her in the grave.

She said: “She needs a proper burial.”

Ms Omoregie said her friend was originally from Nigeria and friends had come from Africa for the funeral on Friday.

She said: “They deceived us and took us for fools. The council has treated us with no humanity.”

Ten years ago, a coroner’s jury returned a verdict that Mr Alder was unlawfully killed and in 2002 five Humberside Police officers went on trial accused of manslaughter and misconduct in public office but they were cleared of all charges on the orders of the judge.

Four years later, an Independent Police Complaints Commission report said four of the officers present in the custody suite when the black former paratrooper died were guilty of the “most serious neglect of duty”.

Humberside Police chief constable Tim Hollis apologised “for our failure to treat Christopher with sufficient compassion and to the desired standard that night” but the Police Federation said the officers involved “strongly disputed” the report’s conclusions.

Mr Alder’s sister Janet brought a civil action against the Crown Prosecution Service after she claimed she would have been treated differently if she had been white, but she lost her legal challenge in March.