A CREMATORIUM worker has been blasted for showing off personal items taken from ashes — including a Special Olympian’s medal.
The treasured gong was won by a swimmer with Down’s syndrome, and should have been returned to his family or recycled.
A whistleblower secretly filmed the worker handling a box of metal items that survived the 1,000C heat.
They said: “It’s undignified and disrespectful.
“Families put things in loved ones’ coffins because they expect it to go with them.
“They don’t expect them to be kept in a box on a shelf, casually shown off to anyone who comes along.”
The 50m freestyle silver medal belonged to John Hopper. He won it at the Special Olympics, an event for people with intellectual disabilities, at Portsmouth in 1997.
Mum Phyllis put the medal in his coffin when he died aged 50 in 2011. She died in 2014 but John is survived by two sisters.
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In the video taken at Fenland Crematorium, at March, Cambs, worker Steve Barnes, 61, is seen flicking the medal on to a desk.
Asked what it is, Mr Barnes says: “That’s a Special Olympics medal. I wet it once so you could read it.”
He also shows the recycling boxes where bra wires, artificial joints and any other metal are stored.
John’s former coach Norman McMurray said: “It’s disgusting. They are robbing John of his dignity. I’d lock them up and throw away the key.”
The Institute of Cemetery & Crematorium Management said: “Metal items should not be kept to show as that would be disrespectful. They should be disposed of sensitively through recycling, or offered back to the family.”
Fenland is run by Dignity Funerals which said: “We keep the residue of coins, medals etc for three to four years in case a family ask for it. After this period it is buried in the grounds and the location recorded.
“We expect all employees to behave in a professional and respectful manner.” Mr Barnes declined to comment.
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