Aberdeen dad's disgust and horror at baby ashes scandal
The remains of babies were cremated at Hazelhead alongside those of unrelated adults without either family knowing
An investigation into Aberdeen's Hazlehead Crematorium has uncovered years of malpractise.
The remains of babies were cremated alongside those of unrelated adults without either family knowing.
Parents were then told there were no ashes to hand back because their remains were so small.
One of those was Paul Wells, who lost his son Scott to cot death ten years ago..
One worker at the Hazlehead Crematorium told Dame Elish Angiolini’s investigation with respect to cremating babies along with adults…“...if you were working late. It probably meant the difference in finishing at 7 o’clock as opposed to 8 o’clock.....it meant we weren’t there working overtime so long."
The report adds “This evidence about the cremation of non-viable foetuses and babies is clearly deeply shocking and offends against not just the FBCA Code of Practice but against any sense of human decency.”
This is despite an independent audit commissioned by Aberdeen City Council more than three years ago which uncovered no wrongdoing, and a later inquiry by Lord Bonomy.
Dame Elish says staff at the crematorium clearly didn’t give auditors the correct information, and misled Lord Bonomy when he visited.
But there also concerns raised in the report about inconsistencies between what the City Council knew, and what they made public, when they released the findings of the independent audit.
The local authority has apologised for what it calls the “abhorrent and unethical practices” – but lawyers representing the families are calling the City Council “morally bankrupt.”