A HUMAN skull discovered half buried off the shoreline of Morecambe Bay belonged to one of the 23 Chinese cockle-pickers who drowned there in 2004.

A fisherman out with a team of walkers found the skull during an organised cross-bay trip, south of Silverdale, in July.

DNA tests confirmed it is a match for 37-year-old Liu Qin Ying.

The deputy coroner for North Lancashire, Simon Jones, told an inquest at Preston Crown Court today that he was “entirely satisfied” with the DNA test which confirmed the skull is that of Mrs Ying.

The victim’s husband, Yu Hua Xu, 37, also died in the tragedy, leaving an orphan son in China.

Now just one of the pickers, Dong Xin Wu, is unaccounted for.

Alan Sledmore, of Hest Bank, was leading a group of 70 people when the skull was found.

“The skull was very small, so we thought it was likely to belong to a woman,” he said.

“It was found in almost the same place as the cockle picking disaster.”

The man who sent the 23 men and women out on to the sands in February 2004, gangmaster Lin Liang Ren, is serving a 14-year jail sentence for manslaughter.

Detective Superintendent Steve Brunskill of Lancashire Police, who led the investigation, has met the family of Mrs Ying and described them as “distraught” but “relieved to hear the news.”

He said: “I remember this family particularly as they were the last family I visited in China,” he said.

“They were dignified, but they have not only had to deal with the loss of their daughter, but also their son-in-law.”

The orphan left by Mrs Ying and Mr Xu – both from Putian City in China’s Fujian Province – has just started university.