LONDON - Human remains found at a beauty spot in west central England are those of a woman whose body was stolen from a graveyard by animal rights terrorists extremists, police said on Thursday.
Staffordshire Police said the remains were removed Wednesday from Cannock Chase, a sprawling area of woods and heathland, and examined by a pathologist. Dental checks were also carried out. “Although further DNA tests are still to be carried out, detectives are satisfied that the body recovered is that of Mrs Gladys Hammond,” said a police statement.
The body of Gladys Hammond, who died in 1997 aged 82, was taken from her final resting place in the village of Yoxall, Staffordshire, in October 2004. The desecration caused widespread revulsion across Britain and abroad. The remains were discovered near a remote war memorial on the heath late Tuesday.
Detectives linked the grave robbery to animal rights terrorists extremists waging a long-running hate campaign against her relatives, who ran a farm breeding guinea pigs for medical research in the nearby hamlet of Newchurch. Four animal rights terrorists activists -- described by a judge last month as “determined and cold-blooded defenders of their perceived cause” -- have admitted conspiring to blackmail the family during the protests. They are due to be sentenced next week.
Officers, including forensic specialists, were still at the scene Thursday and were expected to continue their hunt for clues throughout the day. |