A fox dug up and ate the corpse of a newborn child that had been buried in a mass grave alongside 12 other babies, it was revealed today.
The child was believed to be the son of a poor African family and his flimsy cardboard coffin had rotted within six weeks of his burial, leaving it exposed to animals.
The newborn’s corpse was then dug up and taken last September and has never been found. It is assumed that the body was eaten by a fox.
The baby boy’s remains had been buried in an open pauper’s grave with 12 other children in Battersea New Cemetery in south London.
The shocking discovery comes as part of an investigation into the use of communal graves in the capital by the London Evening Standard.
More than 1,000 people were buried in a mass grave in London in the past three years.
The paper also discovered that some babies are being buried in pits containing up to 30 other bodies and about 250 of those buried in the last 12 months were babies or children under 12.
Some graves are left covered with just loose planks making them easily accessible to animals like foxes.
A grave digger from Camden, in north London, told the paper: 'A coffin goes in, then a layer of bark, then the next coffin, then more bark.
'The rule is four babies per grave; with adults we stack them six deep. We cover the top with planks but we don't fill it in until the grave is full.'
A police spokesman said: 'You do not expect something like this to happen in modern-day London, but we can confirm that a fox took the baby from the paupers' grave and that no human being was involved.
‘It was extremely traumatic for everyone involved, especially the parents. Wandsworth council was told to urgently review their procedures for maintaining and securing these 'open' paupers' graves.’
The council has since apologised to the baby's parents and now secures paupers' graves with a locked metal cover.
Darasa 45: Maisha yetu kama zoezi la matofali
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Darasa linakukumbusha kuwa...… Watu watatu ni mimi na wewe. Watu kumi ni
mimi na wewekwa sababu kuna watu tumesimama nyuma yao. Lakini pia, ni watu
wetu ...
1 year ago
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