A WIDOWER who went to pay respects to his wife at a Wirral funeral parlour was devastated to find the wrong woman had been placed in the coffin - dressed in his wife’s burial clothes.

Alfred Hutton’s distress increased further when the funeral home staff then tried to convince him HE was mistaken, insisting the dead woman really was his beloved partner of 41 years.

That was despite the body laying in the chapel of rest having a full head of hair when his late wife had lost hers through chemotherapy treatment.

The staff also apologised for not being able to fasten earrings to his “wife” - even though the woman in the coffin did not have pierced ears.

Mr Hutton, of Quarry Road East, Bebington, contacted the Globe after reading our exclusive article a fortnight ago about a mix-up by Co-op Funeralcare staff in Wallasey that led to a man’s body being buried in the wrong grave by mistake.

In that incident, which happened in December, the wrongly buried body was then exhumed illegally and cremated at a later date while the correct body was later interred without a vicar or family present.

After reading our story, an appalled Mr Hutton contacted us to tell of the similar mix-up by Co-op Funeralcare when his wife Christine, 60, died of cancer in July 2006.

Mr Hutton was told that his wife’s body would be transferred from Co-op Funeralcare in New Ferry, to their main headquarters in Argyle Street, Birkenhead.

A few days before the funeral, the family made arrangements to pay their respects before Christine was buried.

But just before Mr Hutton and his daughter Karen entered the chapel of rest, the funeral director handed him an envelope containing a pair of earrings that he said would not fit Mrs Hutton’s ears.

“Christine knew she was dying and had requested to be buried in a lilac suit that she wore for my youngest son Wayne’s wedding in Mauritius. It was very special to her. Her other request was to be buried in Christ Church, Port Sunlight,” he said.

“But as we approached the coffin Karen was saying, ‘it’s not Mum, it’s not Mum’. And when I looked, it definitely wasn’t Christine.

“It was all very confusing because she was wearing Christine’s clothes and I was wondering if she could have changed appearance after death.

“The identity wristband on her arm said ‘Christine Hutton’. But the woman in the coffin was thinner and taller than my wife.

“She also had hair and Christine had lost hers after chemotherapy.

“I mentioned it to the staff but they kept insisting it was definitely my wife and that we were wrong.”

It was arranged that Mr Hutton and other close family returned the next day to give their opinion. When the rest of the family attended, they confirmed the error.

“At first Co-op Funeralcare attempted to pass off that the wristband had been put on at the hospital, but I later found out that the funeral parlour replace hospital wristbands with their own,” he added.

“Also the woman who was in Christine’s clothes and coffin was due to be cremated, whereas Christine was due to be buried.

“As I will be sharing the same grave at Port Sunlight when I die, had we not decided to visit Christine at the funeral home, I could have been buried with a stranger.

“Also the reason why the earrings wouldn’t fit was because Christine’s ears were pierced and the other woman’s were not.”

Mr Hutton later received a letter of apology from Co-op Funeralcare waving all funeral costs.

“When I read your article, it just brought it all flooding back,” said Mr Hutton.

“My daughter still has nightmares over it. Mistakes of this scale are totally unacceptable and cause unbearable stress and anger to families for years after. I thought Co-op Funeralcare would have changed their policy, but after the latest case I see this is not so.”

A spokeswoman for Co-operative Funeralcare said: “There is no connection between this incident which took place two and a half years ago and last month’s regrettable occurrence.

“The incident in 2006 occurred at our New Ferry branch and involved different staff members. We apologised to both families involved and the matter was settled amicably.”