Exclusive: The 10 missed chances to spot Christopher Alder burial blunder

Detectives also believe that three managers at the Hull mortuary where Christopher Alder’s body was found, more than a decade after he was supposed to have been buried, “may have a case to answer” after completing a 15-month inquiry into the scandal.

The blunder was only discovered in November 2011 when the family of Grace Kamara, a 77-year-old Nigerian woman, arrived to prepare her body for burial and were told it could not be found.

A South Yorkshire Police investigation into the affair established that Mrs Kamara had been buried in Mr Alder’s grave after a high-profile funeral in the city in 2000. The former soldier, 37, had died on the floor of a police station in Hull two years earlier, with his arms handcuffed behind his back and his trousers around his ankles.

The force has now handed a 160-page report into the burial blunder to the Crown Prosecution Service.

A summary of the investigation seen by the Yorkshire Post states that the inquiry team “believe that three members of the management team of the mortuary between the 1st December 1999 and the 4th November 2011 may have a case to answer”.

It continues: “The investigation team have identified 10 occasions during this period of time when they had the opportunity to identify that the body purporting to be Grace Kamara was in fact Christopher Alder and working practices prevented this.

“The Crown Prosecution Service must consider whether they have been ‘wilfully negligent’ and whether the evidence is sufficient to pass the evidential test to support a charge and secure a successful prosecution for the criminal offence of misconduct in a public office.”

Mr Alder’s sister Janet, 51, said she was angered by what appeared to have happened in the mortuary, but said if “working practices” were to blame it raised the prospect of similar mistakes happening to other families.

“I am absolutely appalled,” she said. “If they’re saying it’s policy and procedures, it can’t have been the same people dealing with it all the time, so are they saying nobody did their job right? I don’t believe that for one minute.

“If that’s the case how many times have they buried the wrong people? How can they be sure they haven’t done it before?”

She added: “If it’s down to policy and procedures there’s a good chance something like this has happened in the past and nobody knows about it.”

The mortuary was initially run by Hull Council before being taken over by Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

Neither organisation would say yesterday when the transfer took place.

A spokesman for the trust said: “While this matter remains the subject of a criminal investigation the trust cannot comment.”

Trish Dalby, the council’s corporate director for city services, said: “We understand the file has been forwarded to the CPS for their consideration and we are awaiting the outcome of their findings.”

South Yorkshire Police was asked to carry out the inquiry by Humberside Police because of the latter’s history with Mr Alder and his family.