Relatives hit out over ‘sickening’ mortuary visits

The revelation was unearthed during the course of a South Yorkshire Police investigation into how the body of Grace Kamara, a 77-year-old Nigerian woman, was buried in the grave of black former paratrooper Christopher Alder more than 13 years ago.

The inquiry failed to establish how the bodies were exchanged, or who was responsible.

But in post-investigation briefings given to Mr Alder’s sister Janet by the force and the Crown Prosecution Service, it emerged that “about 800” trainee Humberside Police officers were taken into the mortuary between Mr Alder’s death in 1998 and 2011, when his body was “discovered” in the morgue after Mrs Kamara’s family came to collect hers for burial and were told it could not be found.

Miss Alder was also told that about 50 trainee officers visited the mortuary between his death and his supposed funeral two years later.

She said she felt “sickened” by the disclosure, particularly as some of the visits came while her family was attending an inquest into her brother’s death in 2000, and while five of the officers were due to stand trial on charges of manslaughter and misconduct following Mr Alder’s death in Humberside Police custody.

The five officers went on trial at Teesside Crown Court in 2002 but were all acquitted on the orders of the judge.

A total of seven officers who visited the mortuary are understood to have been interviewed by South Yorkshire Police, with one claiming they were shown the body of Mr Alder, and another saying they saw Mrs Kamara’s corpse.

Miss Alder said: “I want to know what policies and procedures they had.

“To think I could have been sitting at the inquest into Christopher’s death while police officers were going around looking at his body is very disturbing.

“What right did they have?

“The contempt that has been shown to my family by the police is disgraceful. There was no consent whatsoever.

“It shows these so-called apologies were empty, because they knew of things that were going on that I could never have dreamed of.”

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is already conducting a criminal inquiry into a potentially “improper surveillance” operation carried out on Miss Alder and another person during the inquest.

The mortuary was run by Hull Council until April 1, 2001, when it transferred to the control and responsibility of Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

All of the organisations involved declined to respond when asked whether relatives of the deceased had given consent for the visits.

A spokesman for the trust said: “In accordance with an arrangement established between the police and the coroner’s office some years ago, we can confirm that police officers have, in the past, been given access to the mortuary to view bodies for training purposes only.

“Viewings were managed by the coroner’s office in liaison with, and under the supervision of, senior police officers with support from mortuary staff.

“Measures were taken to ensure that the individual identities of each of the deceased were not revealed to officers during the supervised viewings.

“This practice is no longer carried out, and has not taken place since the mortuary was located at Spring Street over eight years ago.”

He added: “The trust cannot make any comment regarding the Christopher Alder case as this remains subject of litigation.”

The coroner’s office referred questions to Hull Council, which offered no comment either for itself or the coroner’s office.

Stuart Donald, Assistant Chief Constable of Humberside Police, said: “The sad side of policing is that part of a police officer’s role is to deal with the deceased.

“To best prepare them for this student officers would attend the mortuary to help understand the mortuary procedure, addressing matters such as identification, evidence gathering, the dignity and respect of the deceased as well as the personal challenges these difficult duties present.

“Throughout the training student officers would be accompanied by specially trained mortuary staff and a supervisor.

“Due to changes at the mortuary this training stopped a number of years ago.”