Widow sentenced to eternity with in-laws

A widow who does not want to be buried with her parents-in-law has failed in her attempt to have her husband's ashes dug up.

Dorothie Warwick, of Exeter, had sought to have his ashes moved from the grave where they were buried with his parents nearly 15 years ago to a plot where she could be interred with him alone.

Mrs Warwick had sought permission from a church judge to have the remains of her late husband Arthur, who died in 1992, exhumed from their resting place in Exeter.

She had hoped that they could spend eternity together – away from her parents-in-law.

However, a church judge has said there is nothing sufficiently exceptional in her wishes to entitle him to grant her request.

In findings just published, he has ruled that Mrs Warwick's reasons were "understandable". But they were not enough to depart from the usual rule that "a Christian burial is intended to be once and for all".