Third victim is linked to 'CJD cluster' village

Fears that a cluster of variant CJD cases may have occurred in a former mining village grew yesterday withnews that a third victim had links with the area.

Fears that a cluster of variant CJD cases may have occurred in a former mining village grew yesterday withnews that a third victim had links with the area.

Sarah Roberts, 28, an accountant from Armthorpe, near Doncaster, died in September, nine weeks after being diagnosed with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of BSE. Her former neighbour Matthew Parker, 19, died of vCJD three years ago.

Now it has emerged that a third victim, Adrian Hodgkinson, 25, a former RAF policeman from Harrogate, visited Armthorpe regularly in the years before his death in February 1997. His mother, Betty, said: "Adrian came to Armthorpe every weekend between 1972 and 1986... He didn't know the other two victims but he had meals in the village and it's a possible link which has to be investigated."

Scientists who have already visited the relatives of Miss Roberts and Mr Parker will now explore connections with Mr Hodgkinson.