AN inquiry into the Marchioness pleasure boat tragedy has found that some of its victims' body parts were kept without relatives' knowledge.

The revelation, made in a report by Lord Justice Clark, follows the discovery that 25 victims' hands were removed during post-mortems.

When families expressed their outrage, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott ordered a more detailed examination into how victims of the disaster were identified.

Lord Clark's report, due to be published this week, confirms that body parts were removed for storage at London's Guy's Hospital.

Among the victims of the August 1989 disaster was travel agency manager David Highfield, 33, of Fairfield, Stockton.

Mr Highfield was at a party on the Marchioness, hosted by his friend Antonio Vascanelles, when it collided with the Bowbelle, a dredger, on the River Thames.

An inquiry later found that the dredger's skipper, Douglas Henderson, of Throckley, Newcastle, had drunk six pints of beer before the accident, which claimed the lives of 51 Marchioness passengers, including Francesca Dallaglio, the elder sister of England rugby captain Laurence Dallaglio.

The latest discovery echoes the scandal at Alder Hey, the Liverpool children's hospital, where 3,000 dead babies' organs were kept without their parents' permission.

Relatives of the Marchioness victims first suspected bodies had been tampered with when they were prevented from seeing them.

Now they have been given the option of second burials, complete with the missing organs.

Dr Paul Knapman, the coroner responsible for the post- mortems, is criticised in the report for causing unnecessary trauma.