In The News

Church Court rules that body must be exhumed

Church Court rules that body must be exhumed

A Church Court has ruled that the body of a man must be exhumed after he was buried in the wrong grave.

The mistake was made at the Churchyard in the West Midlands after the Vicar had failed to mark the plot used for the burial as belonging to another person.

Daniel Hastelow was buried in the plot. He had been murdered in Majorca in 2008 and his family had his remains exhumed on the island and reburied in St. John’s Churchyard in Walsall Wood.

However, the burial plot had already been selected by Jean Best who wanted to be buried beside the grave of her husband Michael. 

Mrs. Best had been granted permission by the Church to have the plot, but Reverend Nigel Carter had failed to show this in the records.  Because of problems with the ground in the churchyard it was not possible to dig Mr. Best’s grave deep enough to facilitate a second coffin in the future.

A Consistory Court was convened recently to consider the matter. The Hastelow family had opposed the suggestion that their relative should be exhumed. 

The Court has now ruled that the exhumation should take place and that Mr. Hastelow’s remains be reburied in another part of the Churchyard.

 

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