Re Bacup Cemetery

The chancellor refused to grant a faculty for the exhumation of the deceased from her mother's grave in order that she could be re-interred in a grave in which her husband could also be buried upon his death. The deceased's widower sought the faculty on the basis that he had been ‘tricked’ into consenting to the deceased's burial with her mother on the understanding that he could also be buried there, but that that was no longer the case. The remainder of the deceased's family objected to the faculty being granted on the basis that the petitioner had been convicted of sexual offences against the deceased's daughter and others. The chancellor held that the petitioner had not been ‘tricked’ as he alleged but had simply been honouring the deceased's wishes in burying her with her mother. He found that, had the deceased known the full extent of the petitioner's criminality, it would have been inconceivable that she would have wanted to be interred with the petitioner. He further acknowledged the distress that would be caused to the deceased's family should they be required to mourn the deceased at a grave in which the petitioner was also interred. [RA]