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”.
Birmingham band UB40 say the city’s striking bin workers and their union should “keep fighting” in their dispute over pay.
It comes as the government and the council urged them to accept a “fair and reasonable offer”.
“We’re fully on their side,” drummer Jimmy Brown told Sky News. “I think they shouldn’t give up, they should still be fighting.
“Working people shouldn’t have to take a reduction in their incomes, which is what we’re talking about here.
“We’re talking about people being paid less and it seems to me with prices going up, heating, buying food, inflation and rents going up then people need a decent wage to have a half decent life… keep going boys!”
Members of the Unite union in Birmingham earlier this month. Pic: PA
Workers joined picket lines again on Thursday, with some fearing they could be up to £600 a month worse off if they accept the terms.
“We have total utter support for the bin men and all trade unions,” said guitarist Robin Campbell.
“The other side is always going to say they’ve made a reasonable offer – the point is they’re the ones who’ve messed up, they’re the ones who’ve gone bankrupt, they’re the ones now trying to reduce the bin men’s wages.”
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Lead singer Matt Doyle told Sky News: “It’s a shame that what we’re seeing is all the images of rats and rubbish building up, that is going to happen inevitably, but we’ve just got to keep fighting through that.”
About 22,000 tonnes of rubbish accumulated on the city’s streets after a major incident was declared last month by Birmingham City Council.
Rubbish has blighted the city’s streets for weeks . Pic: PA
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Bin situation ‘pains me’ – council boss
On a visit to the city, local government minister Jim McMahon said the union and local authority should continue to meet in “good faith” and the government felt there was a deal that could be “marshalled around”.
He paid tribute to the “hundreds of workers” who have worked “around the clock” to clear the rubbish.
Read more:
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“As we stand here today, 85% of that accumulated waste has been cleared and the council have a plan in place now to make sure it doesn’t accumulate going forward,” said Mr McMahon.
Sky News understands talks are not set to resume until next week.
Trans women in British Transport Police custody will now be strip searched by male officers – not female – following Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling.
The force said it is introducing an “interim position” while it digests the Supreme Court’s decision that the definition of a “woman” under the Equality Act 2010 refers to “a biological woman and biological sex”.
A British Transport Police (BTP) Authority spokesman told Sky News: “Under previous policy, we had advised that someone with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) may be searched in accordance with their acquired sex.
“However, as an interim position while we digest today’s judgment, we have advised our officers that any same sex searches in custody are to be undertaken in accordance with the biological birth sex of the detainee.”
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In September last year, BTP, which is responsible for policing the UK’s railways and similar transport systems, published its “position” on transgender and non-binary officers carrying out strip searches.
It said officers would “only be able to search persons of the same sex on their birth or gender recognition certificate (GRC).
Officers who identified as another gender but who did not have a GRC were not allowed to, but if a trans woman had a certificate, they could strip search a female detainee.
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Gender ruling – How it happened
Strip searches involve the removal of more than a jacket, outer coat, gloves, headwear and footwear.
They “expose buttocks, genitalia and (female) breasts”, the BTP guidance says.
The Sex Matters campaign applied for a judicial review of that guidance with the High Court in December.
It said the policy “puts detainees at risk of sexual harassment and sexual assault”, and said it was a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.
Sex Matters said the policy “also puts female officers in a humiliating and dangerous position, as they may be pressured to search trans-identified men”.
Read more: NHS must stop trans people being allowed on single-sex wars
Campaigners celebrated outside the Supreme Court after Wednesday’s ruling. Pic: PA
One of the High Court judges who made Wednesday’s decision, Lord Hodge, said the ruling should not be read as “a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another”.
Government minister Karin Smyth told Sky News public bodies have been told to look at how equality laws are implemented following the ruling.
She said: “Obviously, public bodies have been asked to look at their own guidance.
“And we will do that very, very carefully.”
But she warned against public bodies making statements “that may alarm people”, telling them to take their time to look at their guidance.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chair of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said the ruling means there is “no confusion” now.
She said the NHS will “have to change” its 2019 policy, which says transgender patients are entitled to be accommodated on single-sex wards matching how they identify.
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