Police identify body mix-up man

Gina Partington believed her son had died (Pic: MEN)

Police have identified a dead man at the centre of a body mix-up.

Gina Partington, of Urmston in Greater Manchester, mistakenly identified the 37-year-old homeless man as her son and went to his cremation last month.

But officers called the next day to say they had found her 39-year-old son, Tommy Dennison, alive in Nottingham.

A police spokeswoman said the family of the man, who died in non-suspicious circumstances in Rusholme, Manchester, on 12 October, had now been informed.

'Distinctive scars'

She said: "An inquiry is under way due to the circumstances of this distressing case.

"We referred the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission which has decided we [Greater Manchester Police] should investigate under its supervision."

Mrs Partington, 58, said her son and the other man, "could have been twins" after seeing him lying on the mortuary block.

After she was first told her son was dead on 30 October she mentioned distinctive scars he had from a previous brain injury and a badly ulcerated leg, and police confirmed it was him.

He had also been identified by his caseworker, who had reported him missing several days earlier.

Mr Dennison, of no fixed address, was jailed for 30 days after pleading guilty at Nottingham Magistrates' Court to a charge of theft on Thursday.