THE parents of an 18-month-old boy who was stripped of vital organs in the Alder Hey Children's Hospital scandal have accepted the public apologies made by the hospital and the University of Liverpool.

Denise and Bill Green, of Worsley, had to hold three funerals for their son William after several of his organs were removed and stored without their consent following his death at the Merseyside hospital in 1994.

William died from a heart attack during an operation to cure a heart defect.

Years later, his parents were twice informed that his organs had been removed.

Angela Jones, chairman of the Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust, said: "The Trust willingly agreed to make a formal and public apology for organ and tissue retention, which wrongly occurred in the past, and for the way in which inquiries were handled for some parents. The death of a child brings unimaginable grief and the Trust, through me, profoundly apologises where we made this suffering worse."

David Lammy, parliamentary under-secretary of state for health, also apologised in a statement.

The statement read: "I sympathise deeply with any parents who have lost a child.

"Families who have, in addition, been directly affected by organ retention have suffered a double blow.

"We have taken clear steps to ensure that nobody again experiences this kind of distress.

"This includes consent forms that will ensure that consent is clearly sought whenever a hospital seeks to retain tissue or organs after death for purposes such as education, research or training."

Mrs Green, aged 47, said: "We definitely welcome the apology and look forward to receiving our personal letter.

"It means that they finally recognise they were in the wrong and this is a step in the right direction.

"Although we accept their apology, it is not over yet.

"We have learned not to let what happened ruin our lives, but the only way we will be able to move on completely is when we see this made a criminal act."

A student at Bolton Institute, Mrs Green is holding an art and sculpture exhibition of her work in May to raise public awareness of organ retention.

'RIGHT STEP': Bill and Denise Green

ORGANS STORED: William Green