A widower has been stopped from putting up a headstone on his wife's grave because the local council fears it could be libellous.

Gordon Lewis wants to include words on the stone's inscription criticising his wife Margaret's medical treatment. But the community council in the village of at Llangattock, near Crickhowell, mid Wales, says lawyers have warned they could be sued if they allow the headstone to be erected.

Mrs Lewis, 64, died in June 2003, but her grave has remained unmarked after the local community council stopped her grieving husband from putting up a headstone criticising her treatment.

Following a long illness, Mrs Lewis was admitted to a local nursing home after her condition worsened.

But within hours, she was moved to Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny, where she died three days later, from septicaemia.

Mr Lewis believes doctors should have admitted his wife to hospital sooner.

He is now calling for a coroner's inquest to be held into his wife's death.

Great-grandfather Mr Lewis told BBC News Online: "I feel terrible about the whole thing, very bitter.

"I'm hoping to have the stone put up with the inscription as I want it.

"I did want it up for Christmas or for my wife's birthday, which would have been on 16 January.

"But I'm holding out for an inquest to be held.

If that doesn't happen, I may have to give in - but it's stalemate at the moment."

Llangattock councillors have met Mr Lewis to discuss the headstone, but say they could be sued if they agree to his choice of words.

Unless 67-year-old Mr Lewis agrees to change the words, his wife's headstone could be left without a headstone.

Meanwhile, he has paid for an inscribed bench to be placed in the cemetery as a memorial to his wife.

Chairman of Llangattock Community Council, Brian Wintle, said: "We have tremendous sympathy for Mr Lewis.

"His wife died quite suddenly and we've had several meetings with him about the stone he wants to erect.

"The problem is that he wants to inscribe it with words relating to what he believes is the cause of his wife's death.

"Our legal advice is that such wording is libellous.

"We have no animosity towards Mr Lewis.

"But we have been to a variety of legal sources and they all say the same thing."

The council's clerk, Graham Powell, who has responsibility for Llangattock cemetery, first realised there could be a problem with the wording on the headstone when Mr Lewis wrote to him with the details of the inscription.

He added: "When people want a headstone, they have to give details.

"Ninety-nine times out of 100, it is a formality, but this case was not that simple.

"If we allow this stone to be put up, then we could be involved in a libel.

"The council is responsible for the cemetery."

Mr Lewis has never made a formal complaint against the local health centre.

Chris Stone, practice manager at Crickhowell Health Centre, said there would be an investigation if an official complaint was ever received.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/3376985.stm