PSNI team renew their appeal as 'baby in the attic' is laid to rest

Builders discovered the tiny skeleton wrapped in a 1930s newspaper as a building at the Promenade was undergoing renovation.

The newborn baby was found under floor boards and wrapped in an edition of The Evening Standard newspaper, dated June 1935.

A magazine, My Weekly, and a chocolate wrapper were also found nearby.

The shocking discovery set in motion a widescale investigation involving the Home Office, police forces across the UK, a forensic anthropologist and one of Britain's best known chocolate manufacturers in an attempt to piece together the sad circumstances of the short life and death of the baby.

Despite the best efforts of the PSNI investigation team, they have been unable to identify the baby or establish the circumstances surrounding its death.

On Thursday, in a moving cross community service in Portstewart, the child's remains were laid to rest.

The PSNI team investigating the case were present at the funeral, which took place at Agherton Cemetery.

Presbyterian minister Reverend Terry Lafferty and parish priest Father Austin McGirr read scriptures and led prayers as the baby was buried.

In a touching gesture, local residents laid flowers on the child's grave.

Speaking after the burial, Rev Terry Lafferty said: "It was a very unusual and poignant funeral, but there was a family of community present."

Undertakers Hugh Wade and Sons conducted the burial for free and Coleraine Borough Council supplied a plot for the tiny white coffin.