14 May 2007Martin Wainwright and James Randerson
The government is facing renewed pressure for public hearings into the Sellafield body parts controversy as new details emerge of tests done on the organs of dead workers without the knowledge of bereaved families. Papers seen by the Guardian show how organs and tissue were removed at autopsies and apparently burned by doctors looking for evidence of radiation contamination.
One woman who has had confirmation that her father, Malcolm Pattinson, was among 65 people whose organs were taken without his family's consent, wants the government to hold a public inquiry into the affair, instead of hearing evidence behind closed doors. Pattinson died in 1971 from leukaemia. Yesterday his daughter, Angela Christie, 49, told the Guardian: "I'm not against research - how could I be when I work at Sellafield, just as my dad did, and so do my husband and my son? But the way these things were done has lessons for today."
She has obtained documents, previously thought destroyed, which show that when her father died, doctors acting for both BNFL and his trade union had immediate access to his organs. Surviving relatives say they and the man's widow knew nothing about it. The papers confirm:
· Organs including lungs, liver, spleen and bone marrow were removed;
· Concerns about the risks of working at the plant were so grave that union lawyers were notified on the day of death about autopsy plans;
· Evidence that BNFL tried to cover up admissions of liability.
Mrs Christie said: "The law was different then, but the papers give me a sense of people doing as they pleased."
The trade and industry secretary, Alistair Darling, last month appointed Michael Redfern QC to report on the removal of body parts from 65 former Sellafield workers between 1962 and 1991. Mr Redfern's inquiry into the Alder Hey children's hospital body parts scandal was praised for transparency and his appointment, followed by an expansion of the Sellafield remit to other nuclear sites, has been welcomed. But while his inquiry will be independent, it will not be held in public. Family members are pressing for a further extension to permit public hearings.
Mrs Christie insisted that only such scrutiny could lay to rest the local sense of shock and suspicion about the research programme. Trade unions and the local Labour MP, Jamie Reed, said the new evidence added to concerns about the secretive way in which deaths were handled.
Mr Pattinson's family won Sellafield's first court admission of liability in 1979 and £67,000 compensation after an eight year legal battle whose documents were rediscovered last week.
The documents include a solicitor's account of the settlement on the day court proceedings were due to start, after a last-minute attempt by BNFL to remove references to an admission of liability made the previous February, on the grounds that the company's press office had been denying this for nine months.
Mrs Christie said: "There are five more boxes of papers involving other families. It will help if it all comes out."
Mr Reed said: "Michael Redfern is the right person to head this inquiry and the government has just announced that he will have a team in West Cumbria to hear from families. This should take its course, but if there are any gaps at the end, then a full public inquiry will be essential."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2078958,00.html
