Sister of man in morgue blunder ‘not consulted’ on second funeral

The body of former paratrooper Christopher Alder was discovered in a hospital mortuary in November, and now his sister Janet has been told another funeral will take place on Thursday.

The solicitor acting for Mr Alder’s sons informed Miss Alder’s legal representative yesterday that the funeral will take place at 11.30am, but she has not been told where, or whether he is to be buried or cremated.

Miss Alder has criticised the authorities for their lack of communication – she was told she would be kept informed and offered continued “assistance and support” – but also believes the body should be treated as evidence until it has been established where it has been and what has happened to it since he died in police custody in 1998.

Mr Alder’s grave in Hull’s Northern Cemetery will be exhumed in a fortnight as part of a criminal inquiry into the blunder, and it is suspected that the body of a Nigerian woman, Grace Kamara, 77, was buried in his place.

Miss Alder, 50, said: “I am absolutely appalled. They could be getting rid of evidence. When did they embalm him? What has happened to my brother over these past 14 years?

“It’s important for my mental well-being to know these things. They have given me no involvement in this whatsoever, no consultation.

“The authorities have totally excluded me from this. The first I was contacted was today, I don’t know where, I don’t know anything.”

The body in the mortuary has since been identified by DNA tests as Mr Alder’s, but Miss Alder’s solicitor had been planning to carry out a visual identification on her behalf this week. She also wishes to assess the state of the body, having been told the remains are “skeletal”.

The body was originally released to Miss Alder ahead of his funeral in November 2000, although it is now being released to his sons, who are aged 26 and 25 and live in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.

A spokeswoman for South Yorkshire Police, which is conducting the investigation, said: “Our responsibility lies with identifying Christopher and with regards to the release of the body, that’s an issue for the NHS in consultation privately with the family.”

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which operates the mortuary at Hull Royal Infirmary, said: “This is a private matter for the next of kin of Christopher Alder and the trust cannot comment any further.”

Mr Alder, 37, choked to death on the floor of the custody suite at Queens Gardens police station in Hull with his arms handcuffed behind his back and his trousers around his ankles.

He had been hurt in a scuffle outside a nightclub and was arrested after becoming aggressive in hospital.

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.

A report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission in 2006 found the conduct of four officers present at the time amounted to “unwitting racism” and the “most serious neglect of duty”.

Last November, the Government apologised to the Alder family after admitting breaching the European Convention on Human Rights over his death.