A NURSE whose body has lain in a West Yorkshire mortuary for 30 years after she died in mysterious circumstances is finally to receive a funeral service.

Helen Smith, who died at the age of 23 after falling from a balcony at a party in Saudi Arabia in 1979, will be cremated in Wakefield on November.

Her father Ron, a former policeman who served in Huddersfield, has until now refused to allow a funeral until he could prove his theory that she was murdered.

It is thought to be the longest time a body has remained unburied in Britain.

Since her death, Miss Smith's remains have been stored in the mortuary in Leeds General Infirmary.

Mr Smith said he had finally decided to agree to his daughter's funeral after receiving a letter from his ex-wife.

He said that she had written to him to say she felt that as she and Mr Smith were in their latter years, they should organise the funeral while they were both still alive.

Mr Smith said: “Looking at it logically and dispassionately I must agree with this modus operandi.

“There will never be any closure. Helen's remains must, I agree, be disposed of as they say in legal terms.

“But I will never accept that there has been no cover up or in this cause for which I have been fighting the past 30 years”.

Helen Smith had been working in Jeddah for four months

A service will take place at Wakefield Crematorium in Crigglestone followed by a private ceremony to scatter her ashes on November 11 at the Cow and Calf Rocks, Ilkley.

Miss Smith died on May 20, 1979, after she and a Dutch man apparently fell 70ft from a balcony flat in the Saudi capital of Jeddah.

Investigations by Saudi police concluded Miss Smith and Dutch sea captain Johannes Otten had died after falling while having sex, but Mr Smith has refused to accept the findings.

He has alleged the real truth surrounding his daughter's death has been covered up by the British establishment at the highest level.

An inquest jury in Leeds returned an open verdict in 1982.

There was a major row after the inquest when the huge legal bill was ordered to be paid by the taxpayers of West Yorkshire.

West Yorkshire Police has previously said that without new evidence, no further action into the case would be taken.