THE sister of a man at the centre of a mortuary body mix-up still believes there was malicious intent behind the scandal.
Janet Alder has spoken of her outrage at discovering the authorities may have missed ten opportunities to avoid it.
Christopher Alder's body was discovered in the Hull Royal Infirmary mortuary in November 2011, 11 years after his family believed they had laid him to rest following his death in police custody in 1998.
The blunder was only discovered when family and friends of Grace Kamara, a 77-year-old Nigerian woman, flew in from Africa for her funeral and asked to see the body.
An exhumation of Mr Alder's grave in Hull's Northern Cemetery confirmed Ms Kamara had been buried in his place.
A summary of the South Yorkshire Police investigation into the mix-up hints at a failure to follow policy and procedure but Miss Alder questions how likely an honest mistake would involve two black bodies.
She said: "We have to ask ourselves if the tags simply dropped off and got mixed up, how it was two black bodies.
"There are still relatively few black people in Hull, so the chances are very small.
"There was a lot of publicity surrounding Christopher's death and his funeral, so everyone knew who he was.
"I don't see how they could have made such a mistake.
"I still believe there is malicious intent behind this.
"But I have no confidence any one person will be taken to task.
"They are using policy and procedure as a scapegoat."
But if the problem is down to policy and procedure, Miss Alder believes it could have serious repercussions.
She said: "If this is down to policy and procedure, then how many times has it happened?
"There may be many other bodies mixed up that people know nothing about."
The summary of the investigation states that the inquiry team "believe that three members of the management team of the mortuary between the December 1, 1999, and November 4, 2011, may have a case to answer".
The force has now handed a 160-page report into the burial blunder to the Crown Prosecution Service.
It says: "The investigation team have identified ten occasions during this period of time when they had the opportunity to identify that the body purporting to be Grace Kamara was in fact Christopher Alder and working practices prevented this.
"The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) must consider whether they have been 'willfully negligent' and whether the evidence is sufficient to pass the evidential test to support a charge and secure a successful prosecution for the criminal offence of misconduct in a public office."
The mortuary was initially run by Hull Council, before being taken over by Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
A spokesman for the trust said: "While this matter remains the subject of a criminal investigation, the trust cannot comment."
Trish Dalby, the council's corporate director for city services, said: "We understand the file has been forwarded to the CPS for their consideration and we are awaiting the outcome of their findings."
