Doctor pleads guilty to storing childrens' body parts
CBC News | Posted: June 29, 2001 8:50 AM | Last Updated: June 29, 2001
A doctor formerly employeed at the I.W.K. Health Sciences Centre in Halifax has voluntarily appeared in provincial court Friday and pleaded guilty to a charge of committing an indignity to human remains.
Dr. Dick Van Velzen is a former pathologist who allegedly stored children's organs at a Dartmouth warehouse. In court Friday, he received a conditional discharge but will remain on probation for the next 12 months and as a condition of the discharge, will make a $2,000 donation to Dalhousie Medical Research.
"The Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service is satisfied with the outcome of this case," Crown Attorney Peter Craig said in a written press release. "This sentence is appropriate for the offence, given the facts of the case and relevant case law."
Dr. Van Velzen is a pediatric pathologist and currently resides in Europe. The human remains discovered consist of organ systems and various organ/tissue samples retrieved during an autopsy of an eight- year-old girl who died several years ago in another country.
The parents sent the remains to Dr. VanVelzen for an opinion in a lawsuit they initiated. They never expected to have the remains returned to them. The family has been informed of the criminal charge against Dr. VanVelzen. The identity of the family is being withheld to protect their privacy.
The 51-year-old doctor was charged last September with improperly or indecently interfering with a body or human remains. Police found eight body parts from one or two five-year-old children in a crate registered to him at the warehouse.
The doctor's Halifax lawyer was trying to get the charges thrown out on constitutional grounds. VanVelzen is a Dutch physician who worked at the IWK Health Centre from December 1995 to January 1998.
He was criticized in February by a British inquiry for allegedly ordering the illegal stripping of every organ from every child who had a post-mortem at Alder Hey, a children's hospital in Liverpool, England, where he worked from 1988 to 1995.