27/09/2005

Five arrests in body theft inquiry

Police investigating the theft of a pensioner’s body from a Staffordshire graveyard have arrested five people.

The body of Gladys Hammond, 82, was taken from her grave at St Peter’s Church in Yoxall, Staffordshire, last October.

Mrs Hammond was related to the Hall family, which ran the Darley Oaks Farm in Newchurch, which bred guinea pigs for medical research.

The business, David Hall and Partners, had been the subject of a six-year campaign by animal rights protestors, which included hate mail, malicious phone calls and arson attacks.

It is believed that the theft of Mrs Hammond’s body may have been related to the campaign of intimidation.

David Hall and Partners announced recently that they were closing the guinea pig breeding facility, because of the hate campaign. Announcing their decision, the family said that they hoped the closure of the facility would prompt those who had taken Mrs Hammond’s body to return her remains.

Police have been granted an extra 12 hours to continue questioning four people arrested on Monday. Three men and a woman, all aged in their mid-thirties, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to blackmail. Police confirmed that one man was arrested in Manchester, another in Edgebaston, Birmingham and a third in Wolverhmapton, while the women was arrested in Burntwood, Staffordshire. They are all being questioned at a Staffordshire police station.

A 23-year-old woman from Wolverhampton was also arrested on suspicion of obstructing police and assaulting an officer. She was taken to a police station in the West Midlands for questioning and was later released on police bail.

(KMcA/SP)

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