THE DEVASTATED parents of a man whose body was dumped in woodland by two heroin addicts are demanding answers over the circumstances of their son’s death.

Jackie and Leigh Noble, the parents of Andrew Loveday, 26, were speaking after seeing Adrian Limb, 29, and Jayne Hartley, 40, each sentenced to two-and-a-half-years jail for a charge of ‘concealing a corpse’ at Preston Crown Court yesterday.

At an earlier hearing the court heard how Limb and Hartley, both of Burnley Road, Loveclough, ‘panicked’ after waking up to find Mr Loveday had died apparently of a heroin overdose on December 5 last year.

Instead of calling an ambulance, the defendants wrapped Mr Loveday’s body in a sleeping bag and pushed it about 150 yards in a wheelbarrow to woodland behind Loveclough Sports Field, where they left it.

Speaking outside court, Jackie said Andrew, who worked as a roofer, died on his sister Jemma Noble’s 14th birthday.

The teenager, who Jackie said ‘idolised’ her big brother, had ‘moved’ her birthday one day forward to December 4 in tribute to him.

According to Jackie, Andrew was not a regular heroin user and she is hoping to find out more at his inquest later this year.

She said: “Andrew had kidney failure in September and nearly died.

"We rushed him to Royal Blackburn Hospital and they did a load of blood tests, but there were no drugs in his system at all.

“Fair enough, he had taken drugs that night but he would not have injected them himself.

"He hated needles. Whenever he had inoculations he had to look away because he was so squeamish.

“We won’t have closure until after the inquest. We want to know more about how he actually died and hopefully we’ll get answers then.”

Limb and Hartley pleaded guilty to a charge of ‘preventing a lawful and decent burial’ last month.

At the hearing, the court heard how the pair at first denied that Mr Loveday had been at the house when interviewed by police.

They eventually admitted the offence after a dog walker found Mr Loveday’s body on December 9.

Passing sentence, Recorder of Preston Anthony Russell QC said: “It was an accidental death but you behaved thoroughly irresponsibly.

“You could have called for an ambulance. You certainly should have called the police and explained the circumstances, but instead you chose to hide the body.

"You subjected the body to indignities which will inevitably have caused distress to the family.

“Your motive was the protection of yourselves for drug offences and you aggravated the situation by lying to the police because you did not just deny knowledge but you told a false story about Andrew Loveday’s movements in order to divert police.”

The court heard how both defendants’ lives had been ‘ruined’ by drugs.

For Hartley, Nick Deering, said the defendant, who has a number of previous convictions for drug offences and manslaughter when she was 17, admitted she persuaded Limb not to call an ambulance.

He said she had been ‘wracked with guilt’ since the incident.

Richard Taylor, for Limb, said the defendant was ‘ashamed’ of what he had done.