Murder victim’s parents win fight for grave

A COUPLE have been given permission to reserve plots next to their son’s grave in a country churchyard, despite parishioners objecting that it would be unsightly.

The Church of England’s Consistory Court granted the parents of James Cooper, who was killed in a street shooting in the US in 2011, the right to be buried next to their son.

Mr Cooper, a tennis coach from Coventry, had just turned 25 when he and a friend were shot dead by a 17-year-old while holidaying in Florida.

He was buried in the churchyard at Hampton Lucy, near Stratford Upon Avon, where his parents, now in their 60s, have lived for 14 years.

The Rev Andrew Larkin, vicar of St Peter ad Vincula, and the Parochial Church Council supported the plea by Stanley Cooper and his wife to reserve space.

But Chris Robinson, a former church warden and church treasurer, objected, claiming it would breach regulations.

Another objector, named as Mrs G Spellar, who helps tidy the churchyard, claimed the reserved space would leave a gap in an otherwise continuous row of graves. As well as being unsightly, it would hinder maintenance.

But Stephen Eyre QC, Chancellor of the Diocese of Coventry, in his role as a judge of the Church of England’s Consistory Court, rejected both objections.

He said the Coopers pointed out “in restrained but powerful terms the depth of their grief at the untimely loss of their only son, explaining knowing they will be buried alongside him will provide them with a modest degree of comfort”.