Funeral for nurse killed in 1979

Father's quest over nurse death

A funeral service has been held for a British nurse who died 30 years ago in Saudi Arabia.

Helen Smith, 23, from Guiseley, West Yorkshire, died after falling from a balcony in Jeddah in May 1979.

Her father Ron, 83, had refused to allow a funeral until he could prove his theory that she was murdered, but he relented last month.

Miss Smith's remains have been in a mortuary since 1979, the longest time a body has lain unburied in the UK.

Two weeks ago, former police officer Mr Smith, who lives in Leeds, said that while he would never accept the official version of events surrounding his daughter's death he agreed with his ex-wife that they should arrange a funeral before they both died.

Mr Smith joined his former wife Jeryl for the funeral service at Wakefield Crematorium.

Murder claim

Only close friends and invited guests were allowed into the chapel for the service.

Her ashes are to be scattered on Ilkley Moor in a private ceremony later this week.

Mr Smith explains why he has finally allowed a funeral to be held for his daughter

Miss Smith had attended a party at a block of flats in Jeddah and was found dead the following morning in the street with a fellow guest.

Police said the couple fell to their deaths while having sex on the sixth-floor balcony.

But Mr Smith claimed there were inconsistencies in official reports and believed his daughter had been murdered.

He campaigned for a full inquiry and won his case in 1982 when the Court of Appeal ruled that inquests should always be held into the deaths of Britons who died abroad in violent or unnatural circumstances once their bodies were returned to the UK.

An inquest into Miss Smith's death was later held in Leeds but the jury returned an open verdict.