Three funerals for baby after police body parts blunder

A British family had to hold three funerals for a baby following a police body parts fiasco.

Fifteen years after Leah Aldridge was killed by her father, her relatives were told last year that Greater Manchester Police had kept her body parts without family approval.

And now her mother Janine Aldridge has been told there were even more body parts not handed back by police, reports the UK Telegraph.

The family have “no confidence” that the baby – aged five weeks when she was killed – has been laid to rest, according to Ms Aldridge’s local MP Chris Green.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said it was an "absolutely terrible case" and expressed her sympathies to Leah's family for their "prolonged trauma".

Ms Aldridge was aged 16 when she lost her daughter in 2002.

Leah suffered brain injuries and died after she was shaken by her father Andrew Ashurst, who was later jailed.

Mr Green told the House of Commons: "Last year the police discovered they had retained some of Leah's body parts and these were returned to the family for a second funeral.

"Only a few weeks ago yet more body parts were discovered by the police and the family had to go through the ordeal of a third funeral."

Leah’s family is one of 180 cases in the UK where police have retained tissue from crime victims without relatives’ permission.

The remains were stored before a 2006 law change made the removal or storage of human tissue without family consent illegal.

Detective Chief Superintendent Mary Doyle, of Greater Manchester Police, said:  "We will of course cooperate with any inquiry as we believe it's important the process is as open and transparent as possible."

Officials from the UK Home Office are now set to investigate the case.