THE dreadful situation in which Worcester man Nigel Cooper finds himself deserves the sympathy of us all.

Ten years after his half-sister Carol's remains were found beneath floorboards at the home of serial killer Fred West, her Astwood Cemetery grave is still unmarked.

He's angry. He's a man who needs a focal point to remember her by. He's a man, we suspect, who needs to finish grieving. But that seems a long way from happening.

Experts says that a sudden or violent death can be particularly difficulty for a family to deal with because of the intense anger often involved.

In Nigel's case, he was two when Carol disappeared, so the need to put things into context arrived later in life than might have otherwise been the case.

After so many years, it's difficult to know what caused his father's second marriage to fail.

However, by moving out and losing touch, he robbed Nigel of a vital connection and, unwittingly, sowed the seeds of a nightmare that goes on.

The fact that Carol's headstone has gone unmarked for all these years is bad enough.

But the prospect of it never being any different adds to the trauma.

His only hope is that his father is declared dead, an outcome that might bring its own distress.

What's clearly needed, meanwhile, is a change in the law that would allow someone in his circumstances to gain the right to decide what happens.

We pray a solution isn't long in appearing.