A BEREAVED father is calling for a public inquiry into Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust's practices after discovering his dead baby's tissues were kept by a hospital.

Brendan Sean McGuire was just 36 hours old when he died in May 30, 1974, after an unsuccessful operation at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport to correct severe intestinal problems.

Following national concern about organ retention, his parents Shaun and June McGuire, pictured, wrote to trust chief executive Martin Turner in 1999.

Mr McGuire of Mole Close, Bettws, Newport, vividly remembered signing a post mortem consent form after Brendan's death and this prompted him to write.

Until now trust chiefs had sought to reassure Mr McGuire - telling the Argus in response to his concerns in September last year: "We can find no record of a post mortem being carried out and it was and never has been our policy to retain organs for medical research."

And in his response in 1999 Mr Turner wrote: "There is no report of hospital post mortems carried out on Brendan. I can only conclude a post mortem did not take place."

But now the trust has confirmed that a post mortem was carried out. It admits organs were removed although not retained - but tissues from Brendan were retained and are stored at the Royal Gwent.

Mr McGuire is now calling for a public inquiry, claiming the trust has "caused years of unnecessary pain and suffering by misleading me throughout".

He said: "I feel I have been lied to and am calling for a public inquiry into its procedure of post mortems on children - I want to know if this has happened to anyone else.

"I am absolutely disgusted with the trust who assured me no post mortem was carried out and I buried my son whole - I want heads to roll for what they have put my family through."

But the trust says its assurances were based on the available information at the time. Mr Turner, in a letter to Mr McGuire dated March 24, wrote: "The result of our investigation has shown that a post mortem was undertaken on your son Brendan.

"I apologise you had previously received reassurances that a post mortem had not been undertaken."