In one of the most remarkable cases ever to be heard at Milton Keynes County Court, Teresa Evans will reveal how she was so upset she considered exhuming 20-year-old Boyd's body to remove the
offending items.

"In the end I decided to let him rest in peace. I just couldn't do it.

"But it upsets me beyond words to think that Boyd will lie forever on a bag of blood-stained and dirty clothes," she told the Citizen.

A talented and popular young hairdresser, known for his snappy dressing and love of fashion, Boyd was killed in a road accident last December while travelling to Liverpool in his friend's car.

Teresa, 50, chose Bletchley-based Matthews and Son
funeral directors to bring back her son's body and organise the funeral.

"I trusted them to send Boyd off with the dignity and love that he deserved.

"When your world has collapsed by losing a loved one, you put all your faith in the undertaker.

"I wanted his coffin to be filled with nice things from me and all his friends. We put in pink roses, letters and tributes of love."

Teresa, who lives in Bletchley, was also desperate to
retrieve all the possessions Boyd had with him at the time of his death.

"I wanted every little thing back. It was very important to me because I felt it was all I had left of him," she explained.

She liaised with the hospital, police and undertakers and eventually traced all the personal effects – apart from the clothes Boyd had been wearing at the time of the crash.

In her County Court Statement of Case, Teresa claims the funeral director told her the bag of clothes had been buried beneath Boyd's body in the coffin.

"It's like he was a vagrant, lying on top of dirty clothes. I felt I had to take action," she said.

She prepared her own case to bring to court and, during her research on the internet, discovered that undertakers in this country do not have to be licensed to operate.

"My aim, in bringing my case to court, is to raise people's awareness that more regulations are needed for undertakers to ensure that our wishes are carried out properly when we lose people we love.

"Nothing will bring back Boyd, or alter the fact that he was buried in the way that he was.

"But it might help others to avoid such heartbreak."

John Matthews, director of Matthews and Son, said this week: "We are defending this case. We cannot say anything further."