'Body parts' doctor faces extradition

The disgraced pathologist at the centre of a British missing children's organs scandal is facing extradition to Canada, after body parts from several five-year-old children were found in his stored belongings.

The disgraced pathologist at the centre of a British missing children's organs scandal is facing extradition to Canada, after body parts from several five-year-old children were found in his stored belongings.

Canadian police want to interview Professor Dick van Velzen, 51, who is living in Holland, after body parts were found in a crate at a warehouse in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Between 1988 and 1995 children's organs were removed and kept at the Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool without the permission of parents. Parents are concerned that Professor van Velzen may have taken some organs with him to Canada. Some parents have held up to three burials for one child as organs taken from children have been gradually returned.

Janet Valentine, a co-ordinator for Pity II, a support group for Alder Hey victims, said: "I have spoken to parents this morning who lost five-year-old children and they are frantic with worry that these are the organs of their children.

A paediatric pathologist, Professor van Velzen worked at Alder Hey until 1995 when he left for Canada. He returned to Holland after being fired for "incompetent acts" by the IWK Grace Health Centre in Nova Scotia. He has brought a claim of unfair dismissal against his former Canadian employers.

Professor van Velzen, who is working at Westeinde hospital in The Hague, Holland, has denied any wrongdoing and says the specimens are not from Alder Hey.

He said yesterday: "They were surgical biopsy specimens that were sent to me from all over the world because of the work I have done on diseases. They were a research experiment to provide the cause of this bowel disease."