A morgue worker in Brazil was fired after he was caught having sex with the corpse of a minor girl, police said Monday.

A colleague caught the accused, identified as 52-year-old Wanderley dos Santos Silva, having sex with the corpse due for an autopsy at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in the early hours of Nov.24. Silva was drunk at the time of the incident.

In a statement Monday, police said, “The Amazon Technical-Scientific Police Department has requested the opening for a police inquiry to investigate a complaint about the practice of necrophilia committed by an autopsy assistant. The matter is under investigation.”

“The assistant was reported to police after allegedly being caught in a suspect situation in the autopsy room. Colleagues said they had found pulling his pants up as he got off the autopsy table where a woman’s body was lying,” police said, adding that the man had since been fired from the job.

Police were investigating the incident and the accused could face up to three years in prison if found guilty of the crime. He is yet to be formally charged with the crime and it remained unclear if he was in police custody.

dead body
This is a representational image of the dead body of an Indian death row prisoner in Lahore, Pakistan, May 2, 2013. Getty Images/Arif Ali
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