Three funeral directors sold 244 corpses for $1,000 (€710) each to a New York businessman who trafficked in the resale of often-diseased body parts, a court heard.

Seven American undertakers linked to a scheme to plunder corpses and sell the body parts for transplants pleaded guilty to undisclosed charges and have agreed to co-operate with investigators.

Four men have been charged with running a bodysnatching ring that allegedly cut the bones of BBC broadcaster Alistair Cooke from his corpse and sold them for transplants in a plot akin to “a cheap horror movie”, US authorities said today.

The family of the late veteran broadcaster Alistair Cooke have spoken of their horror at reports that their father’s bones were stolen by a criminal gang trading in body parts.