March 4, 2005 DAILY MAIL (London) by JAMES MILLS

They lived within 25 miles of each other and went to schools supplied by the same meat wholesaler whose produce is feared to have been infected by mad cow disease.

The link between Marianne Harvey, 25, Richard Cole, 30 and Richard Roberts, 18, was revealed by an inquiry into the cluster of cases.

But relatives are angry that officials kept the report secret and only released it after being forced by the new Freedom of Information Act.

The three, who died between 1999 and 2002, are thought to have contracted variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) as schoolchildren in the late 1980s.

Miss Harvey, a potter, and Mr Cole, a musician, went to Greenhill School in Tenby, South Wales, in 1987 and 1988.

Mr Roberts, a sixth-form student, went to Johnstown Primary School in Carmarthen in the same period.

Both schools used 'high- quality' meat from a wholesaler based at an abattoir at Dafen, near Llanelli, West Wales.

But the inquiry by the National Public Health Service for Wales found that the abattoir was also used by cattle dealer Phillip Murrell. He was accused in the 1980s of slaughtering animals without vet certificates passing them as fit for human consumption.

The farmer, of Cross Hands, West Wales, also had a consignment of meat condemned as unfit in England.

This led to a damning report into Carmarthenshire County Council's environmental health unit in 1990.

One of his drivers was also successfully prosecuted for transporting dead animals with live cattle.

Mr Murrell, who was jailed for tax evasion in 1997, also used the Pwllbach abattoir to slaughter older animals, which are now known to have an increased risk of BSE.

A ban on the consumption of cattle aged over 30 months imposed in 1996 was lifted last December, to the outrage of relatives of CJD victims.

The investigators found the abattoir, now under new management, and the wholesaler operated legally and provided good meat but it may have been infected by Mr Murrell's meat.

The report said: 'If some of the alleged illegally processed animals were in the early stages of BSE, then there is the possibility that a relatively large proportion of prime meat was cross-contaminated.' This meat went

into the local food supply, including to schools.

The findings were made public only when a documentary team for ITV1 Wales used the Act to obtain the documents.

Miss Harvey's mother Rae, who lives with her husband Terry in Pembrokeshire, said: 'It's terrible we weren't given these details. I don't trust the authorities any more.' She said it was 'agonising' to watch her daughter deteriorate in the months before her death in August 1999.

Mr Roberts's mother Julie, whose son died in 2002, warned last night that the country could be facing a CJD 'timebomb.' Mr Cole died in January 2001 from the brain disease, which can lie dormant for decades and has no effective treatment.

It has claimed as many as 147 lives since the Government admitted nine years ago that it had crossed from animals to humans.

STUDENT Richard Roberts was making a name for himself in rugby. The teenager played for the Welsh junior side Carmarthen Quins, where teammates said he was 'enthusiastic, skilful and never let the side down'. He was a keen musician and lived with his parents in Carmarthen. His mother Julie said: 'I fear there could be thousands more cases.'

MARIANNE Harvey died within a year of the symptoms of vCJD appearing.

She trained as a potter after leaving school and lived alone in a flat in Amroth, Dyfed.

As her condition deteriorated rapidly, her father Terry gave up work as an insurance salesman to help his wife Rae look after her. Friends described her as 'quiet and popular'.

Her mother said: 'It's heartrending to watch one so young deteriorate like that.'

RICHARD Cole was a folk musician who was hoping to land a record deal when he was struck by the brain disease in 2000.

He had been making a living playing at pubs and clubs and was an aspiring record producer.

Mr Cole, who was single, lived with his parents near Tenby. A friend said: 'He was a great guy who was very creative as a musician and made his own CD of songs.