The leader of the body-snatching ring that plundered the corpse of "Letter from America" broadcaster Alistair Cooke apologised to the victims as he was sentenced today to 18-54 years in prison.

Michael Mastromarino, 44, a former dentist, admitted paying undertakers to allow his "cutters" to harvest bodies for bones and tissue for use in surgical procedures.

"I am deeply sorry for all the emotional pain I have caused to donor families and donor recipients," he told the Brooklyn Supreme Court in New York.

Mastromarino once ran a dental practice on New York's Fifth Avenue specialising in dental implant surgery. But he was forced to surrender his dental licence and go into drug rehabilitation after he allegedly abandoned a patient under general anaesthetic and was found in his office bathroom with a hypodermic needle in his arm.

Mastromarino set up Biomedical Tissue Services, a New Jersey company that shipped body parts to tissue processors such as Regeneration Technologies Inc, LifeCell Corp and Tutogen Medical Inc.

Prosecutors say the body-snatching ring earned almost $5 million selling bones, skin, tendons and heart valves from 1,077 corpses from 2001 to 2005.

Funeral directors in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were paid $1,000 a corpse, but the stolen body-parts were sold for as much as $20,000.

The "cutters" would take 45 minutes to take out the bones and another 15 minutes to remove the skin and other tissue - sometimes doing six or seven "extractions" a day. The stolen leg bones were often replaced with PVC plumbing piping before the bodies were sewn up.

Among the recipients of stolen bone graft material are thought to be some 40 unsuspecting British patients.

Alistair Cooke's body was carved up at a New York funeral home that his daughter picked from the Yellow Pages after his death from cancer four years ago at the age of 95.

His arms and legs were sent to Regeneration Technologies in Florida, which says Cooke's bones were never transplanted into anyone. It is not known what happened to his pelvis and the other tissue harvested.

Forged consent documents misspelled Cooke's first name as "Alister" and listed his daughter as Susan Quint - even though she is called Susan Cooke Kittredge.

The forms listed Cooke's age as 85, making his body appear younger than it was, and his cause of death as "cardiopulmonary arrest", because cancerous tissue is not used in surgery.

Though he died just after midnight on March 30, 2004, his time of death was given as 6:45 am in an effort to make the body seem fresher than it was.

Ms Cooke Kittredge, a Vermont pastor, testified that her father would not have consented to donate his body to medicine.

Mastromarino was sentenced under a plea agreement that prosecutors tried to annul when they later discovered the scope of his crimes. The judge ruled that Mastromarino had already fulfilled his side of the bargain by cooperating.

At a hearing last month, Mastromarino apologised when confronted by angry victims - including a woman who had received stolen bone.

Dayna Ryan told the court she was infected with Hepatitis B after receiving an implant of stolen bone in spinal surgery.

"His sick, disgusting, appalling actions, all in the name of greed, have devastated my family," she said.

Two other members of the body-snatching ring had already been sent to jail.

Christopher Aldorasi, the "cutter" who hacked up Cooke's remains, had already been sentenced to 9 to 27 years in prison. Lee Cruceta, another "cutter", struck a deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to six-and-a-half to 20 years.

A fourth alleged ring-member, Joseph Nicelli, a former embalmer, may never go on trial because he suffered a fractured skull and broken legs when he fell from a roof.

His lawyers say he is not mentally fit to stand trial. But he was photographed by the New York Post this week walking briskly with a metal stick and talking on his mobile phone.

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