A BEREAVED woman who won a new inquest into her husband's death had her Christmas shattered after finding workmen digging up his grave.

Pauline Combe said she and two of her children were horrified to find a man standing in the grave when they went to pay their respects three days after Christmas.

The body of William Tatters was due to be exhumed at 5am on Thursday for a new post mortem examination after Mrs Combe won a High Court battle to have a second inquest into his hospital death.

But the 38-year-old, of Hazel Close, Blackburn, said she was not told the grave would be mostly dug out in advance on Wednesday afternoon when she and two of the couple's children, Jack, 10, and Stephen, nine, arrived at Pleasington Cemetery.

She said: "Between Christmas and New Year is a time where you should be happy with your family so I am not happy at all they chose to do it then. I was very upset and angry.

"No-one told me they were going to prepare it on Wednesday, otherwise I wouldn't have taken the kids."

Mr Tatters died, aged 52, at Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn, in 2003.

The previous inquest recorded a verdict of natural causes but Mrs Combe has said a fall at the hospital could have contributed to his death.

The coroner's office for Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for Blackburn with Darwen Council, which maintains the cemetery, said it was the responsibility of the coroner's office to inform the family.