Man’s body exhumed in row over missing kidney

Christopher Rochester, 24, had been left unattended on a hospital trolley after falling 40ft from a Faliraki hotel balcony while on holiday with his older brother Keith and friends.

The exhumation was carried out to settle a long-running row over a kidney that was missing from his body when it was flown home, according to reports.

The process was carried out by Durham Police at midnight and lasted around 90 minutes, as Mr Rochester’s family looked on.

“Our CID was working in conjunction with the Greek authorities,” a Durham Police spokesman said.

Mr Rochester died from internal bleeding after being left unattended on a hospital trolley. His parents won their protracted battle for justice in 2008 when one of three hospital doctors was convicted of manslaughter through negligence.

Missing kidney

But a row has persisted over the missing organ. Mr Rochester’s mother and stepfather, Pam and George Cummings, have long called for the Greek authorities to accept that their son’s kidney was removed illegally during the autopsy and that the organ, subsequently sent to Britain, belonged to someone else, as revealed by a DNA test they commissioned.

They have campaigned for a separate investigation into the kidney mix-up.

The Greeks have insisted that DNA samples were inadequate and that new ones should be taken by digging up Mr Rochester’s body.

Mr Rochester’s stepfather, George Cummings, said: “This is something we very much wanted to avoid. We believed that DNA from Christopher’s mother would be enough to prove that the kidney they sent back wasn’t Christopher’s.

“But sadly the Greek authorities stood by their request for Christopher’s body to be exhumed and to extract DNA from the source.

“The Greeks have made it as difficult as possible for us from day one.

“But when the test results come back positive, as we expect them to, the Greek authorities will have nowhere left to hide.”

Mr Rochester’s mother, Pam Cummings, and Mr Cummings, stayed beside his grave while the exhumation took place.

Tests on the kidney returned to the family by Greek authorities were carried out by the head of Newcastle University’s Institute of Genetics, Professor John Burn.

Prof Burn said he established with 99 per cent certainty that the organ did not belong to Mr Rochester.

Mr Cummings added: “To bury your child once is a nightmare but to bury your child twice is beyond a living nightmare.”

It is not known how long the analysis will take or when the results are expected.