The death of an 81-year-old patient in Airedale Hospital two-and-a-half years ago is being investigated by police.

The Keighley News learned this week that the death of Frederick Craven is one of a number being studied by a special police team who are probing a series of suspicious deaths at the hospital.

Former Haworth man John Craven has been told by a top detective, who was accompanied by a senior member of the nursing team, that the death of his father Frederick, is under investigation.

The special police team is carrying out an on-going investigation into a number of suspicious deaths.

Earlier this year the Keighley News revealed that three senior nursing members of staff were suspended, on full pay, from duty in connection with the inquiry.

Neither the hospital nor the police would comment about the suspensions saying the inquiry was "still live".

Frederick Craven, who lived at Morton Close Nursing Home, East Morton, was admitted in an emergency to Airedale, in November, 2001, after he developed pneumonia.

This week his son, who now lives in Halifax, told the Keighley News that the family was told not to worry about his father's condition.

But he died in the arms of his family on November 3. The death certificate records the cause of his death as septicaemia -- blood poisoning.

Frederick Craven, from Clayton, Bradford, had lived at Morton Close for two-and-a-half years. His wife, Doreen, lives at Crossflatts.

His son last visited him four days before his death.

Mr Craven said: "My dad had bad arthritis caused by playing a lot of football. He was losing some faculties and he had cancer of the lymph node glands. But he was fine."

Three days after seeing his father, Mr Craven received a call that he had been admitted to Airedale Hospital with pneumonia. Following a second call, at 4am the next day, he was told he should go into Airedale.

He added: "My mother came over as well and my father died in our arms. We were traumatised."

At the end of last month, Mr Craven received a call from a the special police investigation team working with the hospital.

Just a day before a holiday to a friend's wedding in Spain, the senior police officer and a representative from the hospital visited Mr Craven and asked him to make a statement.

Yesterday police said they could not comment on the development.

l The joint police-hospital probe began after a routine audit of deaths at the hospital.

After studying the records of the death of a 96-years-old woman, they notified police who started a major investigation.

High-ranking nurse Ann Grigg-Booth was arrested in March last year and questioned over the suspected manslaughter of the woman.

Her file has been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service and she has been bailed pending further inquiries.