Human remains found in woodland by detectives investigating the theft of a pensioner’s body from a graveyard were this evening removed for forensic examination.

Police said they are hopeful the body found buried on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire is that of 82-year-old Gladys Hammond.

The remains - discovered yesterday after officers received new information about the grave robbery - are being taken to a mortuary in Stafford.

They were removed from the site near a German War Cemetery this afternoon after being placed in a wooden box by undertakers and carried to a private ambulance. Forensic experts had spent more than ten hours excavating the site where the remains were found.

The body of Mrs Hammond - whose son-in-law co-owns a former guinea pig breeding farm - were stolen under cover of darkness in October 2004 from the grounds of St Peter’s Church in Yoxall, Staffordshire.

Speaking close to the scene of the discovery, Detective Chief Inspector Nick Baker confirmed that police were led to the isolated spot - which is 13 miles away from Yoxall - by "new information".

Standing just yards away from where forensic teams were examining the remains inside a blue tent, Mr Baker said: "Searches began late yesterday afternoon and we have discovered what we believe to be a human body. It is too early to say at this stage if the remains belong to Mrs Gladys Hammond.

"They will undergo DNA and other tests to try to establish identity. This could take several days. Although I know questions still need to be answered, I am hopeful that this may prove to be the development that we and Gladys Hammond’s family have been waiting for."

The body of Mrs Hammond - who died in 1997 - was stolen by animal rights activists involved in a long-running hate campaign against David Hall and Partners, the owners of Darley Oaks Farm in nearby Newchurch.

Today’s apparent breakthrough in the case came just ten days before four animal rights extremists are due to be sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court for conspiracy to blackmail the farm.

In a statement issued by Staffordshire Police, Mrs Hammond’s daughters, Janet Palmer and Margaret Hall, both expressed hope that the remains were those of their late mother.

Margaret Hall, speaking on behalf of the Hall family, said: "We do hope for positive identification of my mother and that we can return her to her rightful resting place."

Meanwhile, the Rev Jenny Lister, the Rector of Yoxall, described the discovery as an "answer to prayer".

"I hope that when the body is identified it proves to be that of Mrs Hammond, so that her remains can be laid to rest once again," she said.

Those who have admitted taking part in the conspiracy against Darley Oaks have been warned they are facing lengthy jail sentences.

Kerry Whitburn, John Smith, John Ablewhite and Josephine Mayo all pleaded guilty last month to taking part in the six-year campaign, which culminated in the theft of the pensioner’s body.

The four were described as "determined and cold-blooded defenders of their perceived cause" by a judge for their part in the activists’ battle against Darley Oaks.

The Hall family announced last August that it would cease breeding guinea pigs, which were used in bio-medical research, at the farm from January this year in the hope that the move would prompt the grave-robbers to return their relative’s remains.

Whitburn, 36, of Summer Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham; Smith, 39, of Leicester Street, Wolverhampton, Ablewhite, 36, of Hawley Street, Manchester; and Mayo, 38, of Spring Bank Road, Edgbaston, all pleaded guilty to conspiring to blackmail David Hall and Partners and others connected to the farm between September 1999 and September 2005.

They are due to be sentenced on May 12.

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