THE plight of a widower who claims his wife's grave was desecrated may force a change of heart from Malton Town Council.

Ron Paterson said he was disgusted when he found his wife Joan's grave had been tampered with. Officials had ordered memorial stones to be moved because the rules of the cemetery stated they were not allowed to be on the grass.

They were only moved when cemetery officials came to mow the grass. But Mr Paterson told the Evening Press this week that his wife's grave had been there for five years - others had also been there for some time.

Town councillors at a regular meeting last night admitted the matter had been handled "insensitively" and agreed to look into the possibility of reversing cemetery rules to allow the memorials to be put back.

Coun Norris Binner said because Mrs Paterson's grave had been untouched for five years then the council had condoned it being there for that length of time.

"It is people's families we are talking about here - I know I would not like it if the grave of a relative of mine had been moved," he said.

"I think someone has made a mistake here and I do not go along with it. If these are the rules, they want changing."

Coun Frank Wiggle said the matter had been handled very badly.

"I think we should have shown more sympathy to these people," he said. "We should have at least contacted the relatives first before we went ahead and moved these gravestones."

Town clerk Gerry Cheetham said blame lay with local funeral directors and stonemasons for not informing mourners they were not allowed to place memorials in certain areas.

"They would have been aware of that rule and they should have informed people," he said.

But Mr Paterson, who made the complaint in the first place, maintains he was never told he would not be allowed to place a memorial over his wife's ashes.

"I am glad some councillors have stuck up for us - they ought to put them back where they were straight away," he said. "I think it is disgusting that people's graves should be tampered with in this way. It's vandalism."

Updated: 11:17 Friday, July 27, 2001