Police probing a series of suspicious deaths at Airedale General Hospital are now investigating the death of a former footballer.

Three senior members of the nursing staff have already been suspended in connection with the inquiry.

And a senior nurse remains on bail while a file is considered by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Police have now revealed that they are examining the death of 81-year-old Frederick Craven as part of the inquiry into the hospital at Steeton, near Keighley.

Mr Craven, who had been a resident at the Morton Close Nursing Home, East Morton, for two-and-a-half years, was taken to the hospital suffering from pneumonia but died hours later. Detectives have only now revealed to his son, John, that his father's death is part of the major probe into at least eight suspicious deaths at the hospital.

Mr Craven today told the Telegraph & Argus that his suspicions had initially been aroused at the time his father died in November 2001.

"I saw him four days before he left the nursing home and he was all right," he said.

"He had arthritis and Hodgkinson's Lymphoma - cancer of the lymph nodes.

"I then got a call saying that my father had been taken to hospital suffering from pneumonia.

"Twenty four hours later at four in the morning we got a call to say he was dying."

His father, a former Bradford Park Avenue and Coventry City player, had been in a coma when his son arrived at the hospital. He died in his arms minutes later.

"He was like a skeleton," said Mr Craven.

He said he had also been concerned at the way the family were dealt with by staff after the death.

"When we went for the death certificate they rushed us in and out," said Mr Craven.

"It said on the certificate that he'd had pneumonia but had died from septicaemia, which is blood poisoning.

"I was suspicious and I didn't like the attitude of the staff."

Mr Craven said a detective in the inquiry team and an Airedale hospital official had now visited him to inform him that his father's death was being re-examined as part of the extensive police investigation.

He said his mother, Doreen, who lives in Crossflatts, Bingley, was "deeply upset" by the revelation.

Neither police nor the hospital have commented on the latest developments.

The inquiry into the deaths - which is being carried out by a special police team led by Detective Superintendent Phil Sedgwick - was sparked off by a "routine audit" of deaths at the hospital.

Hospital officials had become suspicious about the death of a 96-year-old woman and had called in police.

A senior nurse - understood to be Ann Grigg-Booth - was arrested in March last year and questioned extensively over the suspected manslaughter of the 96-year-old, who has not been named, as well as the administering of morphine to patients over a two-year period.

She is currently on police bail while a file is considered by the Crown Prosecution Service.