More than 300 bodies found in Oldham mass grave – most belonging to babies and children
More than 300 bodies have been discovered in a mass grave in Oldham, with the majority belonging to babies and children.
The 12x12ft grave in Royton Cemetery was found by a woman looking for her brothers, with one stillborn and the other dying within five hours in 1962.
According to councillors Maggie Hurley and Jade Hughes, who revealed the discovery in a statement, 146 of the bodies were stillborn babies and 128 babies and young children.
Until the mid-1980s, stillborn babes were often taken from families with no consultation with their parents, who would not know where they were taken.
“It’s a stark injustice that parents were denied the fundamental right to bury their babies, a right that should be inherent and unquestionable,” the councillors said.
“This situation should stir our collective sense of fairness and empathy.”
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The woman’s find left her “in tears”, they added, and “feeling a profound sense of loss and injustice”.
She needed emotional and practical help to cope with the trauma of her discovery, they said.
The councillors also said this grave is not the only one of its kind in Royton Cemetery, with another three of a similar size.
Royton Cemetery. Pic: Royton Independents/Facebook
Of the 303 bodies found, they added there were only 147 names online, with 156 names missing – though they say this has been addressed.
“We also asked about the other cemeteries across the borough, and we were informed that there is missing information for these cemeteries as well,” they said.
“The staff are currently in the process of rectifying this by cross-referencing all available records and updating the online database.”
Parents ‘told to forget’
According to stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands, parents of stillborn babies or those dying shortly after birth were not consulted about funeral arrangements.
“Before then, parents were not usually involved and many were not told what happened to their baby’s body,” the charity said, adding this changed midway through the 1980s.
“Some parents who have tried to trace the grave or cremation record of a baby who died some time ago have been successful.”
In many cases, they added, stillborn babies were buried in a shared grave with other babies.
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The Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management said in a journal in 2015 many of these babies would be buried in an unconsecrated area as the child would not have been baptised – and the parents “urged to forget”.
Sands states there was a “general belief, both amongst professionals and society as a whole, that it was best to carry on as though nothing had happened”.
“You may have been discouraged from talking about or remembering your baby and discouraged from expressing grief,” they added.
The councillors said the woman set out to look for her brothers after reading the story of Gina Jacobs, who in 2022 found her son, who was stillborn in 1969, in a mass grave at a cemetery in Wirral.
On Thursday night, Ms Jacobs referred to the woman’s discovery in a Facebook group, commenting she is “working tirelessly to get justice and recognition for our babies and born sleeping siblings”.
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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