Woolmer's body arrives in South Africa

The body of Bob Woolmer has arrived in South Africa after Jamaican officials gave permission on April 23 for it to be released and handed back to his family.

A casket bearing Woolmer's embalmed body arrived at the Cape Town International Airport shortly before 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on a South African Airways Flight from London. The Doves funeral group confirmed that the wooden casket wrapped in plastic being offloaded from the Boeing 747 contained Woolmer's remains.

"The body would be kept at a mortuary while his family makes funeral arrangements," Theo Rix, the Doves Western Cape general manager, told AFP. "We are meeting the family tomorrow morning to make the final arrangements."

Woolmer's body was in Jamaica since his murder on March 18 having been held back for the inquest scheduled for April 23. But instead the coroner allowed the body to be released and postponed the inquest indefinitely in light of what he described to be "significant developments."

Gill, Woolmer's widow, who lives in Cape Town's Pinelands neighbourhood, has previously said her English-born husband's cremation ceremony would be a private family affair.