No action against body-on-plane pair

AN Oldham woman who was alleged to have tried to smuggle her dead stepfather on to a plane has spoken of her relief that no charges will be bought.

Anke Anusic, of Franklin Close, Coldhurst, only found out the news from the media yesterday after returning from 91-year-old Kurt Willi Jarant’s funeral in Germany.

The 41-year-old childminder was arrested at Liverpool John Lennon Airport in April, along with her mother Gitta Jarant (66), who lives in Chadderton.

The German nationals tried to check-in for an EasyJet flight to Berlin with Mr Jarant, who suffered from Alzheimer’s and was in a wheelchair.

He was wearing glasses and a hat but staff noticed something was wrong, checked his pulse and found he was dead.

The women were accused of trying to smuggle the body back to Germany to avoid £3,000 repatriation costs.

But the pair, who were travelling with three of Miss Anusic’s children, said that they thought he was asleep. A pathologist concluded Mr Jarant had been dead for up to 36 hours while a later examination found it was less than 12 hours.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has now said there is insufficient evidence to charge them.

A German newspaper paid for Mr Jarant’s body to be flown back to his homeland where his funeral and cremation was held on Friday.

Miss Anusic told the Oldham Chronicle that her mother had gone blind because of the stress of the ordeal.

She said: “I never took it personally. I know I did not do anything wrong and we all did not do anything wrong. How can they say things like I smuggled a a dead body, I am not a criminal?

“My stepfather touched my mum’s leg in the taxi. A dead man wouldn’t do that. I think he died on the way to or in the airport.

“It was a shock for all of us. We did not expect him to die, my mother wanted him to live forever. She still doesn’t accept that he is dead.”