FAMILIES who accused doctors of taking organs from their children and other loved ones without relatives' knowledge yesterday won the right to seek damages.

Mr Justice Gage, in the High Court, ruled the practice was unlawful. He said organs had been taken in a morally and ethically "objectionable" practice.

A total of 1,348 claimants, where organs were removed as a result of hospital post-mortem examinations, will now be able to seek damages if they can produce evidence that they suffered psychiatric injury.

There was heartbreak, however, for families where organs were taken following coroners' post-mortems who were not included in the ruling.

Richard Lissack QC, who represented 2,140 claimants in the action, including about 100 from the North-East, said a major conclusion of the judgement was that "doctors have been acting unlawfully for the last 40 years by using organs without the knowledge or consent of families".

He said three test cases had been brought on the basis that there was negligence by hospitals and wrongful interference with the bodies of children.

Mr Lissack said that the question of negligence did not apply in the coroners' cases which had only been fought on the basis of wrongful interference, which the judge had rejected.

The action centred on three lead cases involving the removal and retention of organs from babies Rosina Harris, Daniel Carpenter and Laura Shorter.

The judge gave judgement in favour of the Shorter family, awarding £2,750, but dismissed claims in the case of the Harris and Carpenter babies

Included in the court action were Tony and Maureen Atwill, from Sunderland, whose son Brent, 29, died at Newcastle General Infirmary in 1998 following a car accident and who, they say, had his brain removed without their consent.

The family could now win compensation, but Mr Atwill told The Northern Echo: "How can you put a price on anything like this?

"What happened we have to live with for the rest of our lives. We asked specifically not for a post-mortem to be carried out on our son.

"The next time we saw him in a chapel of rest his body had been chopped to pieces. We then got a letter saying they had taken his brain and samples from it."

A Government investigation found that up to 500 body parts were stored by NHS trusts in South Durham, South Tees, South Tyneside, York and Northumbria and up to 2,700 at hospitals in Newcastle.

A spokeswoman for the South Tees NHS Trust said: "Practices have now changed considerably within the health service."

Brian Storey, who set up the North-East Retained Organ support group following concerns over the removal of organs from his son John, said: "People will still want those responsible to be held to task."

The new Human Tissue Bill, introduced by the Government, will outlaw the "removal, storage and use" of human tissue without proper consent