New York The leader of the body-snatching ring that plundered the corpse of the Letter from America broadcaster Alistair Cooke apologised to the victims as he was sentenced yesterday 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.

Prosecutors say that the 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. Among the recipients of stolen bone graft material are thought to be about 40 Britons.

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.

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