ANGUISHED parents whose babies’ brains were secretly kept after their death have slammed police and coroners after a report revealed dozens of families were affected.

Dorset Police have visited 35 families to tell them their loved ones’ organs or body parts had not been returned to them despite investigations into their deaths being finished.

Hamworthy mum Julie Middleton told earlier this year of her ordeal after officers turned up and said her baby son Regan’s brain was found in a jar at Southampton Hospital 13 years after he died of cot death.

Now a new report from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) shows forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were holding onto 492 organs including brains and limbs so she has called for more assurances that body parts are not being held.

“It makes me think ‘what else have they got of Regan’s?” Julie Middleton said.

“I’ve been told about his brain but I trusted them before and now my trust has gone.”

The police stated that any retained tissue will be kept under constant review.

But Julie, 40, added: “When his dad carried his little white coffin I thought he was complete but I feel I’ve been duped and the wool has been pulled over my eyes.”

Julie, who has four daughters aged 16, 14, 9 and 5 said the ordeal has had wide reaching effects with the 492 cases stretching back to 1960.

She said: “There’s nearly 500 cases across the country but it affects a lot more people than the parents as you’ve got the brothers and sisters and the grandparents.”

A change in the law in 2006 means human tissue cannot be kept indefinitely but ACPO instructed police forces to carry out the audit in laboratories, hospitals and mortuaries after discovering some human tissue was not being returned.

The tissue was placed in three categories with smaller tissue deemed inappropriate for the research and only category three, samples, incorporating organs and limbs, were deemed necessary for the audit.

ACPO instructed forces to treat each sample separately to decide if the families should be contacted and Dorset Police spoke to all 11 families about the 12 body parts in their care.

They spoke to another 24 families about more parts held under the authority of the East Dorset Coroner.

West Moors couple Paul Dixon and Melanie Ware were just 16 when their baby son Jordan died in his cot and they too were told his brain was at Southampton hospital.

Paul, now 31, said: “We still want something done about it and we’ve not had an apology.

“This report is not enough.”

‘We remain aware of sensitivities’

DORSET Police said the audit has established the extent of organs held and has allowed them to consider the most appropriate way of sensitively dealing with “material” no longer needed for criminal justice purposes.

Detective Chief Inspector Kevin Connolly said: “We remain very aware of the sensitivities of the families affected and have worked closely together with hospitals, pathologists and coroner’s departments to complete the audit and inform families as quickly as possible.

“The force has undertaken a joint operation with the East Dorset Coroner, and specially trained Dorset Police family liaison officers have already personally visited all 35 families affected to inform them that tissue samples had been identified. This has been incredibly difficult for these families and we have provided all the support we can to help them at this difficult time.”

DCI Connolly said when a suspicious death occurs they take every step possible to establish the cause and sometimes further analysis of tissue is also important in the ensuing criminal investigation to identify evidence.

Support is available from groups including the Cruse Bereavement Centre, the Samaritans and The Compassionate Friends.