Police investigate morgue body mix-up
Police are investigating how the body of a man who died in police custody turned up in a mortuary over a decade after he was supposedly buried.
37-year-old Christopher Alder died on 1st April 1998 at a police station in Hull, UK.
The former paratrooper choked to death while he was handcuffed and lying on the floor.
It has now been revealed that when his family thought they were burying him over a decade ago, they were actually burying a 77-year-old Nigerian woman Grace Kamara.
Hull City Council said the mistake wasn’t realised until late last week when they found the body of a man where a woman was believed to have been stored.
Council chief executive Nicola Yates said: “On Friday 4 November 2011 I was made aware of a situation relating to the body of a man, who was in his late thirties, located in the city mortuary.
“The body lay in place of where Grace Kamara had been recorded as resting. At the moment I cannot explain this.
“Whilst Grace Kamara died of natural causes in 1999, her burial was, for family-related reasons, only able to take place on Friday. It was immediately postponed.
“My first priority has been to make sure the families involved were informed and given the necessary support.
“Now that we have made our best efforts to notify and support the families, I can confirm that the body of the man has been identified as Christopher Alder.
“I am appalled and distraught at what I have learned and in conjunction with Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust we will be undertaking a thorough review of the circumstances surrounding the events.”
According to the UK’s Daily Telegraph, allegations of racism were made at the time of his death after it was claimed police officers made monkey noises as he lay on the floor.
His sister Janet Alder attempted to launch a civil action against the Crown Prosecution Service however she lost her challenge in March.
Now she is claiming the body mix up is further evidence of racism.
She told the paper: “They have just buried any old black person. From the word go, Christopher’s death has been linked to the colour of his skin, from his treatment at the
police station to the way that he was handled in the morgue.
“They have obviously just said ‘We have got to bury a black person, that must be him’. How else could they make that mistake if it wasn’t by looking at the colour of his skin?”
In 2001, a coroner’s jury reached a verdict of unlawful killing after an inquest. A year later, five Police officers went on trial accused of manslaughter and misconduct in public office however they were cleared of all charges.
In 2006, an Independent Police Complaints Commission report said four of the officers present when Mr Alder died were guilty of the "most serious neglect of duty".
