Newall blocks his parents' burial

MARK NEWALL, jailed this week for helping to cover up the murder of his parents by his brother, is refusing to release their bodies to relatives who want to bury them in Scotland.

Nicholas and Elizabeth Newall were bludgeoned to death in their home in October 1987, and the crime remained unsolved for nearly seven years. On Monday Roderick Newall, 29, was sentenced to life imprisonment for their murder, and Mark, 28, was sentenced to six years for the cover-up. Both are in prison in Jersey, awaiting transfer to England.

Stephen Newall, the father's twin brother, and the mother's sister, Nancy Clark, want to take the bodies to Scotland for burial, but Mark retains control over the estate and the bodies. He has been executor of his parents' will since they were declared officially dead in January 1991, following an application by the two brothers, who wanted to inherit their property and other assets worth an estimated pounds 900,000.

Mark has stipulated he does not want the bodies buried in Scotland, where both parents and their sons were born and lived before moving to Jersey in 1968. Their uncle Stephen, who helped police to trap the boys by allowing them to tape record a conversation in which Roderick confessed his guilt, lives near Rhu, Strathclyde, where as children Roderick and Mark spent holidays.

A report is being drawn up for Jersey's Bailiff, Sir Peter Crill. A local lawyer told the Independent there was nothing in probate law on the island which applied to the circumstances of this case. He said: 'The court does have the power to set aside an executorship. It is for the court's discretion.' The bodies have been preserved by Jersey authorities since they were recovered last November from the site where the brothers had hidden them in 1987.