Boy buried with brain missing

Kimberly Robinson is planning a second funeral after a coroner's officer phoned her out of the blue and asked: "What do you want us to do with your son's brain?"

The brain was removed, without the family's knowledge or consent, for medical tests when six-year-old Michael Thomas drowned in the bath in 1996 after suffering an epileptic fit. It was never returned to his body.

Mrs Robinson, 39, of Melbourne Avenue in Goring, said: "This has just torn the family apart. We are all devastated.

"You don't expect to be told eight years after a funeral that some of your son's organs weren't buried with him.

"If I had known at the time, I would have waited. I would have waited for as long as it took for them to finish with it and put it back.

"I understand tests have to be carried out, but I never thought they would just take things and not put them back.

"We had an open coffin at the funeral service and you naturally assume everything is all there.

"You never get over the death of a child but, over the eight years, we have managed to get through things. This is a bereavement all over again."

Mrs Robinson, who has remarried since the death of her son, said she was contacted by telephone at 7.30pm a few weeks ago and asked "Are you sitting down?" before being told the news.

She has slammed the way her case has been dealt with by the coroner's office and she has lodged a formal complaint.

This week, West Sussex coroner Roger Stone declined to make any comment.

Senior medical staff at Worthing Hospital have been helping the family come to terms with the news.

Pam Lelliott, spokeswoman, said: "This must be an extremely distressing situation for Mr and Mrs Robinson and family. Our role is to support the family through this difficult time by offering the services of our hospital chaplain and advising them who they need to speak to at the coroner's office to find out exactly what happened."

Mrs Robinson's three other children, Mark Thomas, 18, Ann-Marie Thomas, 17, and Floyd Thomas, 11, and her 80-year-old mother, are now preparing themselves for a second service, although they do not know when that will be.

Less than a year after Michael was buried, callous thieves stole his headstone and this latest grim discovery has made the family question whether the youngster will ever be allowed to rest in peace.

His big brother, Mark Thomas, said: "This has practically rewound time by eight years. He deserves to be left in peace."