A MAN has been reunited with his father after recognising him on a television programme – five years after arranging his cremation.
John Renehan, 42, who was watching a missing persons programme after a night shift was amazed to hear an appeal for anyone who recognised "David Harrison" to come forward.
Mr Renehan had been told a badly decomposed body found in bushes in hospit
al grounds in January 2003 was that of his father John Delaney, 71, who disappeared three years earlier.
The pair were reunited two weeks ago after DNA tests confirmed they were indeed father and son.
Mr Delaney, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, had in fact been admitted to hospital suffering from amnesia caused by a head injury ten days after he was reported missing in April 2000 from the Mary and Joseph Hostel in Ancoats.
He was admitted to Royal Oldhan Hospital on 6 May 2000 and then handed over to social services and transferred to a care home. Mr Delaney was unable to give any clues to his identity so he was given the name David Harrison.
Yesterday police admitted that mistakes were made and that Mr Delaney's family had "been through a traumatic ordeal". They have also launched an inquiry to find out the identity of the man who was cremated.
His family reported him as missing but appeals failed to uncover information regarding his whereabouts.
The body of a man, which had similar clothes and historic wounds to Mr Delaney, was found in the grounds of Manchester Royal Infirmary in January 2003. It matched the description of Mr Delaney, who was reported missing from the Mary and Joseph Hostel in Ancoats in April 2000.
There were no suspicious circumstances and the matter was passed to the coroner. An inquest was held where the body was formally identified as Mr Delaney and an open verdict was recorded.
Greater Manchester Police has launched an inquiry to establish the identity of the man who was cremated in 2003.
"I was in shock. We thought we had cremated my dad. But I knew it was him," Mr Renehan, from Didsbury, said.
Social services were unable to appeal for information until a change in law this year allowed them to do so without his consent.
Mr Renehan has demanded an apology from police for not running DNA checks on the body, but such tests were not widely used at the time.
Mr Renehan claimed his father's memory is slowly starting to improve as he bids to retrace his history. In a statement, Greater Manchester Police said the identification mix-up was a matter for the coroner, who is no longer in the post and admitted inquiries at the time "were not sufficient".
"At that time, only paper records of people reported missing from home existed," the police spokesman said.
He added: "Greater Manchester Police accepts that in 2000, the man who was admitted to Royal Oldham Hospital should have been identified as Mr John Delaney and that the inquiries made at the time to establish the unknown man's identity were not sufficient.
"Today, Greater Manchester Police has advanced systems in place to ensure that mistakes of this nature are not made and robust checks are made to establish the identity of people who cannot immediately confirm who they are."
TIMELINE• April 2000: John Delaney goes missing from hostel in Ancoats, Manchester.
&149 May 2000: Admitted to hospital with amnesia. Transferred to residential care; now known as "John Harrison".
• January 2003: Body identified as Mr Delaney is cremated.
• August 2008: Reunited with son after DNA tests.
The full article contains 604 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
