Family row over dad's burial reaches High Court

A family row over whether a 95-year-old man should be cremated or buried has reached the High Court. Michael Godwin died in a hospital in Leeds last November after returning to the UK for a holiday in August. He had previously expressed a wish to be buried in France. But his body has remained partially embalmed in a mortuary since shortly after his death, after two of his three sons, William and Jason Godwin, became embroiled in a dispute over how he should be laid to rest. On Wednesday a judge ordered Michael be buried in the UK as part of a Church of England funeral. At a hearing in Leeds earlier this month, William asked a judge at the High Court to declare he had the "lawful authority to arrange and instruct" his father's cremation, and that Jason had "no lawful authority to prevent or interfere" with it. But Judge Jonathan Klein ruled that Michael should be buried in England - and ordered that William "must extend an invitation" to his brother. The judge said Michael, who was a member of the Church of England, had expressed a "consistent wish" to be buried and that repatriating his body to France could cause "significant delay". The court heard Michael was born in Surbiton, so