A GRIEVING Ashburton sister has finally received the green light to bring her brother home and lay him to rest, nearly one year after he died out in Brazil.

Dawn Major’s brother, former Royal Marine Anthony James, died in São Paulo of natural causes, aged 54, last December. The former Falklands’ veteran, and prisoner of war, was living as an ex-pat.

Due to lengthy ‘red tape’ wrangles and language barriers, he was buried without his family’s knowledge. But now a judge has ruled his body can be cremated and returned home.

Dawn said: ‘The process has been so demoralising and upsetting. But now, between a funeral director in London, one in Brazil, and a solicitor in Brazil, we’ve finally got it sorted.

‘The judge has agreed a court order to exhume Anthony’s body and allow him to be cremated in Brazil. His ashes will then be flown back to Ashburton where we can conduct a long-awaited funeral.

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