A GRIEVING mother has spoken of her horror at finding her son's grave 'desecrated' just three weeks after he was buried.

Yvonne Sutton said she was furious when she discovered grave diggers at Pleasington Cemetery in Blackburn had 'dumped a mountain of soil' on top of her 37-year-old son Michael's resting place.

Michael, who was known as 'Mick' to his family, died during a trip to Blackpool on June 10.

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The former Darwen Vale High School pupil had been visiting the seaside town with friends when he went missing.

Hours later police found his body on the beach.

Yvonne, 57, of Heys Lane, Blackburn slammed grave diggers for thoughtlessly moving her son's funeral flowers after preparing to dig the next door plot.

The mother-of-four said: "Mick would have been furious if he could see how they had desecrated his grave.

"He was so respectful, something like this would have really upset him.

"I could have understood if there was no room for the soil anywhere else, but there was loads of room behind his grave to place the unwanted soil."

The grandmother-of-nine also slammed the Blackburn with Darwen Council cemetery workers for failing to properly cover the open neighbouring grave with a wooden board after her two-year-old granddaughter almost fell into the hole.

She said: "Everyone was fuming and so upset.

"We've never seen anything like that before.

"The graveyard is usually so beautiful and peaceful."

Council bosses apologised for causing any upset but said a lack of space meant placing soil on graves was unavoidable.

Michael's sister, Sarah Coey, said her daughter would have fallen to the bottom of the open grave if a relative had not been holding her hand.

The 29-year-old said: "Her leg went right in, if her auntie hadn't had hold of her arm she could have fallen right down.

"It's so dangerous, people always bring their kids around there.

"She could have been seriously hurt."

Michael, a scaffolder, had been visiting Blackpool with a group of friends including his sister Gemma Sutton, 31 and brother-in-law Chris Rose, 38, to celebrate a 30th birthday.

The family said the group had a 'perfect' day but had become separated towards the end of the night.

Believing Michael to be with friends, some members of the group headed back to Blackburn on the train, thinking he would follow on.

But just hours later Yvonne was told the devastating news by police.

Describing Michael as 'kind, loyal and fun' his family said they were still desperately trying to come to terms with their loss.

Yvonne said: "It's still very raw, I don't think it's sunk in yet.

"I keep his picture next to me but every time I look at it I get upset.

"Our closeness has helped us cope.

"We can sit down and talk about it which really helps.

"Mick always looked after me and his dad.

"He bought and insured a car for us because he knew we could not afford one, that's the kind of person he was."

Gemma said: "He was a really good big brother.

"He would do anything for the people he knew. He'd give you his last penny."

As well as his mum and dad and three siblings, Michael leaves behind nine nieces and nephews.

More than 200 people attended his funeral at St Aidan's Church in Mill Hill on June 23.

Many of his friends rallied together raising more than £1,000 through donations to help his parents cover the cost of the funeral.

Yvonne said: "I couldn't believe there were so many people who knew him.

"There were grown men crying.

"He's just going to be so missed.

"You don't expect your child to die at 37 so we had nothing put away to pay for it.

"So when his friends organised all this for us it really helped."

Tony Watson, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s head of environment and public protection, said: “We would like to apologise for any upset this has caused.

"The practice of temporarily placing soil onto a board and partially placing it over a neighbouring plot happens when there isn’t room to put the soil anywhere else.

"This is unfortunate but is unavoidable when space is limited.

“The soil was removed within one working day, but again we would like to apologise as we understand this may cause upset for the family.”