British police have apologised for wrongly identifying a dead body they discovered in a park as missing Irish pensioner John Delaney.

Mr Delaney's son, John Renehen, spotted his father on a missing persons' ad -- five years after he thought he had cremated him.

It later transpired that Greater Manchester Police (GMP) had wrongly identified a dead body as Mr Delaney (71) because he had similar injuries and was wearing similar clothes.

Mr Delaney, it emerged, was not the dead man but had in fact been in a care home since 2000 where he was placed after being found wandering dazed and confused in Oldham, near Manchester.

He had suffered total memory loss after receiving a blow to the head.

Mr Delaney had been unable to give any clues to his identity so he was given the name David Harrison and placed in a home.

Great Manchester Police's identity checks have come under intense scrutiny since Mr Renehen was reunited with his Laois-born father.

They admitted their matching systems for missing people were "not sufficient" back in 2000, but claim to have rectified the situation now.

"At that time, only paper records of people reported missing existed," a spokesman said.

"Today GMP has systems in place to ensure mistakes of this nature are not made, and robust checks are made to establish the identity of people who cannot confirm who they are.

"GMP accepts mistakes were made and Mr Delaney's family has been through a traumatic ordea