AN ERROR that led to the interment of a body in the wrong grave in Walsall Wood, in the West Midlands, will have to be resolved by a consistory court.
Daniel Hastelow, a murder-victim who died in Majorca, and whose family had spent two years trying to have his body returned, was buried by mistake last Monday in a plot reserved by the widow of Michael Best, who holds the faculty. Her husband’s grave is alongside.
The Vicar of St John’s, Walsall Wood, the Revd Nigel Carter, has accepted full responsibility for what happened. “I have privately apo-
logised to both families, and I would like to repeat that apology publicly,” he said this week. “I am only too aware of the level of additional grief it has caused the families, and I want to work with them and the registry to agree a solution.”
Mr Carter was not due to take the funeral himself, but should have marked the grave with a name. Without the information, the gravediggers assumed it was the next plot in the row, which had been reserved by Mrs Best.
Mr Hastelow’s burial is acknowledged to have interfered with the rights granted by the faculty. Exhumation of a body also requires a faculty, and, since Christian burial in consecrated ground is regarded as final, a consistory court has to be satisfied that the circumstances are exceptional.
The Archdeacon of Walsall, the Ven. Chris Sims, is in liaison with the families. If they reach a mutual decision, it will be referred to the consistory court for approval, but a formal sitting of the court could take place, allowing both families to make their views known.
Gavin Drake, communications director for Lichfield diocese, said: “We are extremely sorry for the distress this has caused.”
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