Family's desperate campaign to stop child sex offender being buried with brother
16.05.2022 - 09:53
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
The family of a man who died more than 20 years ago is desperately campaigning for a convicted sex offender not to be buried in the grave next to him.
Stephen Lee Wilcock, from Blackburn, was 18 when he passed away suddenly in 1998. His sister Bethany Jackson is now campaigning for the rights of his burial spot 24 years on, LancsLive reports.
It comes after Stephen's father, Kevin Harrison, was convicted of a child sex offence against a boy and jailed last month. Harrison currently owns the plot next to his son Stephen and wishes to be buried there.
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When Stephen died, their mother and family could not afford to pay for funeral costs. At the time, Harrison offered to cover the costs and bought the deeds to Stephen's plot at Pleasington Cemetery in Blackburn. But this was an act that the family would later regret with Harrison still owning the spot next to Stephen despite pleas from Bethany and family to let them purchase it.
Stephen's mum, Linda Hogg, who is also Bethany's mum, expressed a desire to be buried next to her son after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Bethany said: "It was when Stephen turned 13-years-old that Stephen was given the choice to move in with Kevin at 16 and because we had such a hectic household with five children, he decided to go."
It was only two years later that Stephen was tragically found dead on the bathroom floor of the Oswaldtwistle home he was living in with Harrison. Initially, the family thought his cause of death was due to an asthma attack, but later found out it was down to a heart defect he unknowingly had since birth.
According to Bethany, her mother Linda was the last person to find out about the