A mother has called for cemetery officials to show more respect after discovering her pre-term baby was buried in an open mass grave left covered by a wooden board.

Kelly Williams, 22, from Littlemore, Oxford, was four-and-a-half months pregnant when she lost her baby son.

She was offered a burial service through the John Radcliffe Hospital’s chaplaincy service and carried out by Oxford City Council at Headington Cemetery.

Miss Williams attended the burial of her son — who she had named Mennis Lee — and six other pre-term babies and she said she was told the grave would be covered within 15 minutes.

But when she, partner Ashley Whiter and five-year-old daughter Alliyah returned to the cemetery two days later, they found a wooden board covering the hole in the ground.

It is standard practice by the council, but Miss Williams said she could see part of the roses she had placed in the grave with her son.

Miss Williams said: “I pushed the board to the side and saw the hole hadn’t been filled in as I was led to believe it would be. There was a thin layer of earth covering my son’s grave.

“The babies weren’t visible, but the roses we left with him were, so it couldn’t have been covered much.

“Anything could get into his grave, an animal or anything.

“I feel now that my son’s little body is not safe and keep having nightmares about it.

“I don’t feel my son has been laid to rest properly or we have been shown the respect we deserve. Parents need to know their child is safe and no-one else can touch them.”

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said normal procedure for the burial of “non-viable foetuses” – the medical term for babies who die in the early stages of pregnancy – had been followed and explained to Miss Williams.

The Rev Philip Sutton, head of chaplaincy and patient services, said: “We seek to offer a dignified and sensitive burial.

“We are sorry Miss Williams does not feel she was provided with all the information she needed. We apologise for any distress caused.”

Oxford City Council said it buried foetuses on behalf of the hospital in graves, 4ft by 2ft and 5ft deep, every two weeks.

After each burial ceremony, a layer of soil is spread over the foetuses and a wooden board, 3ft by 6ft, placed over the top of the grave.

A new grave is dug every two months.

Spokesman Louisa Dean said: “The burials are carried out under an agreed practice and the process is explained to the parents by hospital staff.

“Parents are offered the alternative of contacting a funeral director if they wish to make their own funeral arrangements.”

Last night, Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society spokesman Katie Duff said: “I’ve personally never heard of anything like this.

“If this is standard practice at the hospital it seems Miss Williams was very poorly informed.”

Other hospitals in Reading and Northampton said they had similar arrangements for the burial of foetuses.

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk