22 seconds ago 2009-11-28T13:38:25-08:00
LONDON (AFP) – A British woman who died in Saudi Arabia more than 30 years ago was finally given her funeral Monday after her father relented in his bid to prove she was murdered.
Helen Smith, a 23-year-old nurse, died in May 1979 when she apparently fell from a sixth-floor balcony in the Red Sea port of Jeddah in western Saudi Arabia.
Her father, former police officer Ron Smith, refused to believe official reports that her death was an accident and would not allow her body to be released from a mortuary for burial.
The official report said she had attended an illegal drinks party and was found dead in the street the following day along with a male party guest. Police said the couple fell to their deaths while having sex.
The nurse's body was held in a mortuary in Leeds, for what is believed to be the longest time that a body has not been buried in Britain.
However, a funeral service was finally held Monday at Wakefield Crematorium, south of Leeds.
Ron Smith, 83, who is now seriously ill with kidney disease, walked slowly into the chapel with a stick, joining his former wife Jeryl for the funeral.
The coffin had a wreath of mainly pink flowers on top. Around a dozen people attended.
Ron Smith's campaign led to the Court of Appeal ruling in 1982 that inquests should be mandatory when Britons have died abroad in violent or unnatural circumstances.
An inquest was held into Helen Smith's death but the jury returned an open verdict.
