The leader of a body-snatching ring responsible for stealing the bones of veteran broadcaster Alistair Cooke will plead guilty next week despite US prosecutors trying to withdraw a plea deal.
Michael Mastromarino netted millions of dollars for his role in the hacking up of hundreds of corpses before forging donor consent forms and selling the parts on for transplants.
Lawyers believe that around 40 unsuspecting British patients received the stolen bone graft material. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Albert Tomei ordered US prosecutors to honour a plea bargain reached last month when the 44-year-old former dentist appeared in court today.
Repeatedly hitting the bench, the judge said: "I'm not here to have show trials. I'm here to do justice."
The judge dismissed the Brooklyn assistant district attorney's argument that only a trial would fully redress the harm caused by Mastromarino as "specious and of no substance".
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article