A large group of children from Harwich are today being offered counselling after realising what they thought was a dummy was in fact the badly burned body of young man.

The children, aged between eight and 11, found what they thought to be a mannequin last Friday between 3.30pm and 5.30pm while playing near the Beacon Hill Fort, Dovercourt.

Det Sgt Deirdre Nowell of Essex Police said: "The children thought it was a dummy. They were prodding it with sticks at the time. Obviously this is horrific for children to have made such a discovery."

The children, who are all from local schools, only came forward to the police on Wednesday after reading about the body's discovery in This Is Essex partner paper the Gazette.

Det Sgt Nowell said: "They had been talking about it at school and wondering if it could be what they had thought to be a dummy. Now that it has sunk in the kids are obviously quite traumatised."

The body had been at the fort for some time when the children found it and it was reported to police by passers-by at the weekend .

It had been badly burned making normal identification processes almost impossible. Police attempts to establish the identity of the corpse through DNA screening have failed.

Det Sgt Nowell said they were now considering the possibility of facial reconstruction to aid identification.

Anyone with information should contact Harwich Police station on 01255 241312.

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