The body of a baby born 17 weeks prematurely was accidentally thrown into an NHS hospital's laundry basket and then put through a wash before being found by cleaning staff at the laundry, it emerged last night.

James Fernandez died soon after being born, weighing only 1lb 1oz, at Queen Mary's hospital in Sidcup, Kent, on November 17 last year.

His body was removed to a refrigerator unit before being transferred to the mortuary on November 26 where he was to be stored in preparation for his funeral.

But somehow his body, which should have been kept in a clear container, became lost in dirty washing lying on the floor of the mortuary and was eventually gathered up and placed in a laundry bin.

Early this morning the hospital apologised unreservedly for the distress it caused.

James's father, Patrick Kelly, 36, told the Sun that the mistake was incompetence and not simply a tragic accident as the hospital claimed. His girlfriend, Amaia Fernandez, 25, who has British citizenship and teaches Spanish, has returned to her parents' home in northern Spain to recover.

The mistake was not discovered until undertakers arrived at the hospital on December 12 to remove James's body and hospital staff realised they could not find James.

Police were notified, and the next day workers at an industrial cleaning firm in Brixton, south London, found the body among washing they were sorting on a conveyor belt.

James's corpse was not found earlier because the hospital laundry is not sorted by hand before it is washed, to avoid any risk of disease to laundry staff.

An inquiry into the case carried out by five senior doctors and administrators found that "the event was a tragic accident".

It went on to say that the hospital trust had taken steps to ensure that such an accident should not happen again.