Body parts man to plead guilty

THE man accused of scheming to plunder bodies for parts used in thousands of tissue transplants in the US and Canada is poised to plead guilty.

In an effort to escape a lengthy jail sentence in cases in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York, Michael Mastromarino has agreed to talk to investigators about the companies that bought the stolen tissue, said his lawyer, Mario Gallucci.

“Let’s just say that he is going to assist them and give any information he has about the processors and their role,” Mr Gallucci said.

The companies that processed the tissue already face hundreds of civil lawsuits. But they claim they never knew the body parts were not legitimately obtained and insist the former oral surgeon’s plea deal, expected to be announced tomorrow, does not change anything.

The scandal broke two years when Mr Mastromarino, then owner of Biomedical Tissue Services, was accused of furtively hacking up corpses — including that of Briton Alistair Cooke, host of Masterpiece Theatre — from funeral homes in the north-east.

The body parts were sent to processors, fetching up to $7,000 (€4,770) a piece.

Mr Mastromarino, 44, was in a position to know exactly how the business operated and who knew what.

The parts were used in disc replacements, knee operations, dental implants and a variety of other surgical procedures performed by unsuspecting doctors across the US and in Canada.