Aberdeen baby ashes crematorium director resigns

Pete Leonard's duties included overseeing Hazlehead Crematorium

The director of the department running Aberdeen's Hazlehead Crematorium which was at the centre of the baby ashes scandal has resigned.

Baby and adult ashes were mixed together at the crematorium and given back to relatives of the adult.

The parents of infants were told there were no ashes.

Aberdeen City Council said Pete Leonard had resigned following a period of ill health. The council thanked him for 12 years of service.

BBC Scotland revealed in 2013 that no ashes had been offered to the families of infants cremated in Aberdeen over a five-year period.

It followed similar revelations about Mortonhall crematorium in Edinburgh, which had been secretly burying baby ashes for decades.

A report into the scandal by Dame Elish Angiolini described the practices as "abhorrent".