NO CHARGES are going to be brought against a man who removed part of a human bone from a controversial building site in a New Forest churchyard.

Brian Walker, 65, from Golden Crescent, Everton, is one of more than 1,000 people who objected to Hordle Parochial Church Council's plans to build a hall in the graveyard at All Saints' Church.

Despite forcing the church's hand and getting a rare consistory court hearing they failed to stop the project and work began behind a high wooden screen earlier this year.

In May Mr Walker spotted the piece of bone on a spoil heap when he peered through a spy hole in the screen. He used a long-handled grabber to reach it.

Church spokesman the Rev Graham Smith claimed the find was a hoax.

Bournemouth Univer-sity later confirmed it was part of a human tibia, or shin bone.

Hordle PCC, led by vicar Canon Michael Anderson, complained to police, alleging that there had been an infringement of the Burial Act.

PC Dick Beszant handed the file to the Crown Prosecution Service in late June.

Now the CPS has said it is not proceeding with any charges.

Mr Smith said he was not prepared to make any comment on the issue until the bone had been returned to the church.

"We want the bone back because it has to be re-interred with a Christian ceremony," he said.

Tim Boyce, spokesman for the Objectors' Action Committee complained it was "a facile move to report it to the police in the first place".

Going to court would have provided an opportunity to quiz Canon Anderson on the issues, he said.

"We still think the church should seek to identify the relatives and approach them, because if anybody has a right to the bone, it's the relatives," he said.

"Even now the church sees no reason to apologise for any of this, and we think they should."

He and committee members want apologies for shifting headstones, digging up remains, building over graves and for claiming the bone find was a hoax.

Mr Walker said: "I'm pleased, I suppose. I wouldn't have minded if it had gone to court. We could really have gone to town on them.

"The objectors' committee have conducted this to the letter but the church tried to twist the facts."

First published: September 10