Daniel Hastelow’s body will be dug up again, having only recently been returned from Spain.

Body of Daniel Hastelow, 26, was buried in a plot assigned to a widow who wants to be buried alongside her husband. A court ruled yesterday that the claim of Jean Best, 71, must take priority and Mr Hastelow’s body will be dug up again, having only recently been returned from Spain. remains of a murder victim are to be exhumed for the second time in six months after a vicar buried him in the wrong grave.
He was stabbed to death in Majorca in 2008 while celebrating his birthday and his family was not allowed to bring his remains home until a murder trial was concluded in September last year. Richard Roberts, 36, of Merseyside, was jailed for 18 years for the murder. Mr Hastelow’s body was buried in Walsall Wood churchyard in the West Midlands in November last year after the vicar forgot to mark out Mrs Best’s reservation. After the families failed to reach an agreement, the Archdeacon of Walsall petitioned the Consistory Court of the Diocese of Lichfield for Mr Hastelow’s body to be exhumed. At Warwick Crown Court yesterday, Judge Martin Coates granted the petition. He said: "In all the circumstances I find that the stance taken by Mrs Best has been reasonable and I am satisfied that in view of the error which has occurred here it would be right to permit an exception to the general rule that when a person is buried in consecrated ground that should be regarded as a final resting place." The body of Mr Hastelow will be exhumed and reinterred in the churchyard of St John’s Church, Walsall Wood, he said. At an earlier hearing, the Rev Nigel Carter apologised for his “foolish mistake” and was ordered to pay for the reinterment. The judge said that in the future assigned burial plots should be marked with the word “reserved”. Outside court Mr Hastelow’s mother Susan, 56, said that was little comfort. “My son has had to pay for someone else’s mistake and it doesn’t seem fair to me.” She added: “It took a long time and I thought he was at home, I thought he was at rest, and now a blunder like this.” The judge said: “Mrs Hastelow has had a wretched experience. Her son was killed when away from home and buried in a foreign land.
“It has taken a considerable amount of effort, dedication, time and fundraising to secure the return of his body to Walsall, and I accept that this mistake in the location of Daniel’s burial is heavy for her to bear.” But he found that was outweighed by Mrs Best’s legal rights. She and her husband Michael, who died of cancer in 2008 aged 72, were married in the Walsall church 50 years ago. All five of their daughters were baptised there.