A MUM has vowed to sue police after they revealed her dead baby’s brain was removed and stored in a jar for 13-and-a-half years without her knowledge.

Mel Galton, of Lordshill, Southampton, has urged other parents to come forward as she prepares to “get justice” for her little boy Ricky, who was a victim of cot death.

Now a second funeral is being held to bury 13-month-old baby Ricky’s organ with the rest of his body.

Mel is the latest heartbroken parent to come forward in the baby organ controversy, in which a growing number of parents have discovered the brains of their children were stored at Southampton General Hospital without their knowledge.

Single mum Mel, 46, got the news two weeks before Christmas.

Ricky was her first son and died of cot death in June 1997. A postmortem was carried out but Mel, now a mum-of-three, said she had no reason to believe at the time her little boy’s brain had been removed and that he was not “complete”

when she buried him.

Dorset Police, conducting an audit into samples stored in hospitals, called at Mel’s home to tell her that Ricky’s brain was at the hospital in Southampton.

Holding back tears Mel, who lived in Poole at the time of Ricky’s death, said: “When they said to me that Ricky’s brain is in a jar at the hospital I went numb. They may as well have told me my son had died again.

“I feel like they have stolen part of my child. Bringing everything up again is heartbreaking and horrendous.

“What scares me is how many more are there? Was Ricky’s brain one of many in a jar at the back of some shelf for all those years and only five minutes down the road from me without me knowing?

“They offered me a free funeral and I am sorting out the details this week. I will be going because, although it will be so painful, I want Ricky to be complete, to be whole.

“I will not stop fighting now because they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this. More than 13 years later you don’t expect them to still have part of my child and I want justice for Ricky.”

The Daily Echo has now highlighted six cases of people being told their children’s brains – and other organs – were kept without them knowing.

A spokesman from University Hospital Southampton Trust said it acts as a storage facility for police and the coroner.