Shrewsbury baby ashes parents call for national probe

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-32981477

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Families of dead children whose ashes were not returned have renewed calls for a national investigation.

On Monday, an inquiry found poor training and out-of-date equipment at Shrewsbury's Emstrey crematorium were mainly to blame for ashes not being recovered prior to 2012.

About 60 families are believed to have been affected since 1996.

David Jenkins, who led the independent inquiry, said he was "struck" there was no national guidance.

His report recommended the appointment of a national inspector to oversee the creation of a new code of practice.

Speaking on Tuesday, parents said they had been "traumatised" by the findings of the inquiry.

Glen Perkins, who lost his daughter Olivia in 2007 and founded the Action for Ashes campaign group, said it was a "nationwide problem".

The group said it had been contacted by other bereaved parents across the country, including in Sheffield and Hull, who had reported similar experiences.

"These atrocities are happening as I'm reading this statement," Mr Perkins said.

'Different standards'

One family from Shropshire said they had been informed there would be no ashes just hours before the cremation of their twin babies.

Rhiannon Stanton-Davies, who lost her newborn daughter Kate in 2009, said: "We never knew there were different standards and practices at different crematoria. We never knew we had a choice."

She said if informed, she would have had her daughter cremated at nearby Telford, where "ashes could be guaranteed".

She said: "We feel like Kate has been taken from us; stolen from us all over again.

"We have the deepest pain that our daughter is lost forever, in all likelihood consigned to an unmarked grave."

Another parent, Andrew Morris, said the inquiry suggested his son Matthew had been treated like "soot".

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said it "deeply" sympathised with the parents "in these tragic cases".

"What happened at Emstrey over the course of more than a decade was totally unacceptable. We are clear that this should never happen again and we'll consider the report's recommendations carefully."

The previous government suggested investigations in Shrewsbury and Scotland could prompt new rules.