THERE were tears and anger at Newport's full council meeting yesterday as it descended into heckling and abuse.

And the cause was the latest twist to the story of how families across Gwent are facing up to the fact that their loved ones may be buried in the wrong graves at Newport's St Woolos cemetery.

Newport council leader Sir Harry Jones revealed that 15 graves at the cemetery were excavated - one of them revealing the wrong body under the headstone - following our Argus special investigation.

And Alan Perchard, who we revealed last month to be affected by the graves mix-up, has now asked his local Assembly Member, Jocelyn Davies, to call in the Ombudsman to look at the way the blunders have been handled.

At an emotional meeting yesterday, Sir Harry said they had received 40 inquiries following the Argus revelations of mix-ups in plots 99 and 101 of the cemetery between 1979 and 1981. Sir Harry said 23 of those inquiring were reassured their loved ones were not in the affected plots; a further 15 graves were excavated, revealing 14 were correct and one was wrong - the gravestone has since been moved to the right position.

He added they were still not sure of the situation surrounding the last two inquiries.

Sir Harry was responding to a statement from Plaid Cymru councillor Garry Brown about the difficulties he was facing getting background information about the investigation that took place 20 years ago.

Councillor Brown had raised Mr Perchard's case at the previous full council meeting and claimed he had not been given any answers since.

He was barracked by a number of councillors, who accused him of using the 20-year-old mistakes for political gain. They said he was deputy chairman of the leisure committee at the time and would have been informed.

Sir Harry added that there were members of the council who had been affected and that they would have been up in arms if anything had been hidden from them.

But Councillor Brown replied: "I was not informed. I did not know what was going on." Councillor Graham Dally told Councillor Brown his actions had upset a lot of people, and that one 90-year-old woman had turned up at the cemetery in tears, believing her husband was in the wrong grave when he was actually in the right one.

Mr Perchard was joined in the chamber by Gail Williams, (pictured) from Bettws, whose husband was involved in the graves mix-up. She left in tears after the councillors were shouted at from the public gallery.

Her councillor, Noel Trigg, told the meeting: "Mrs Williams has gone through a very difficult time and wants the matter resolved. Despite her distress she does not want compensation, just peace of mind. Mrs Williams wants a guarantee her husband's grave will never be opened again and that she herself can be laid to rest alongside him." Councillor Dally said he could give that assurance.

Following the meeting, Mrs Williams said: "This only happened ten months ago for me, not 20 years ago, and I've lived at St Woolos cemetery since."