Family looks for ‘strength to grieve’ as hoax call nurse buried

Some 2,000 mourners packed a church in India for the funeral of a nurse found dead after taking a royal hoax call, as her family said they had nearly lost the strength to grieve.

Indian-born Jacintha Saldanha, 46, apparently took her own life after answering the call from Australian radio hosts to the London hospital where the pregnant wife of Prince William was admitted with acute morning sickness.

“The events of the last week have shattered our lives and we barely have any strength to grieve,” widower Benedict Barboza and the couple’s two children said in a statement read by a family friend after the funeral.

“The incidents leading to this tragedy are being investigated by the London Metropolitan Police and they have assured us of a full and fair investigation.”

Barboza and the couple’s son, Junal, 16, and daughter, Lisha, 14, were joined by relatives and local residents for the Catholic service in the southwestern state of Karnataka.

Saldanha’s coffin, covered with flowers and with a photographic portrait on top, was carried out of the Our Lady of the Health church in Shirva, 50km from Mangalore city, for burial in the cemetery.

“Benedict has become a widower and her children are motherless. Let us pray for her soul,” Ronald Saldanha, a relative of the family, said in the address.

Before the ceremony, Saldanha’s coffin was taken to her mother-in-law’s house where female mourners chanted and sang commemorative songs.

“This is a sad moment. Nothing else, just grief,” M Menezes, a computer professional on Christmas leave from his job in the Gulf, said after paying his final respects.

Family members in the town were unwilling to speak to reporters after a week of intense media scrutiny following the news of her death.

Television crews jostled to film the service through the main door of the church and to get footage of the burial as large crowds gathered behind ropes to watch the coffin being lowered into the ground.

Barboza hugged his son and daughter at the graveside as the burial rites were concluded and a brass band played a final hymn.

A London inquest last week heard that Saldanha had been found dead in staff accommodation on Dec 7 and there were no suspicious circumstances over her death.

A few days earlier the nurse put the hoax call through to a colleague, who relayed confidential details about the health of Prince William’s wife Kate Middleton to the radio presenters.

Saldanha left three notes, one of which reportedly criticised colleagues over her treatment at the hospital.

The hospital has defended itself, saying it offered support to her and had stressed she would not be disciplined for being taken in by what it described as a “cruel trick”.

Australian police say death threats have been made against the presenters from Sydney’s 2Day FM who made the call posing as the Queen and Prince Charles.