The mother of a British soldier who was killed by an Iraqi car-bomb claims that she was told the limbs of another man were returned with his body when it was delivered back to the UK.

Janice Murray, 45, said she was horrified when a funeral director in Sunderland telephoned her to say that the left leg and left arm of 18-year-old Private Michael Tench were not his.

The roadside bomb which killed him on January 21 also injured one unnamed military colleague, who lost a leg - and Private Tench's inquest heard that much of the muscle tissue at the scene had been damaged beyond identification.

Mrs Murray said that the funeral director had told her that the body parts her son was placed with did not belong to him. "[The director said] the left leg is not his. The next day he said your son’s left arm is not his," she said.

A Ministry of Defence official, however, claimed that all of the body parts had been DNA tested before being given to the funeral director, so a mix-up could not have happened.

"The issue about whether they were the right body parts - I do not know what she is talking about, because we carried out full DNA testing on all the parts before they were handed over," he said.

The extraordinary fallout came just a day after Mrs Murray refused to accept a formal MoD apology for misinforming her about the way her son died.

The 45-year-old said that she was initially told that her son had died of a chest wound and that his body was intact, and only later was she informed about the full nature of his injuries.

In a statement, Colonel Hugh Welby-Everard said: "I apologise for the pain and distress caused by any erroneous information that Mrs Murray may have been given about the injuries her son, Private Michael Tench, received.

"Any information given was provided in good faith and based on information known at the time.

"Any mistake that was made in this case is deeply regretted. Our thoughts are with the family of Private Tench at what must be a difficult time for them."

The MoD added that Mrs Murray had now been provided with a military narrative of the events leading to her son’s death.

However, Mrs Murray refuses to accept the service's apology. "I would have and could have accepted [the apology] but it’s too long, too late and the truth should have been given at the beginning," she said.

"At the end of the day, how many more families are stuck in my position?"

The Sunderland resident added that the issue haunts her whenever she visits Private Tench's grave. "I look now [at the grave] and think, what is in there, what is Michael like down there?" she said.

Mrs Murray added: "I do believe there is a lot of dishonesty and mistrust. To not know is bad, to be lied to is even worse."

Private Tench joined the Army less than three years ago. He left for Iraq with A Company on September 4, 2006.

Concluding his inquest, the coroner ruled that Private Tench, of the The Light Infantry, was unlawfully killed by "blast wounds caused by an explosion".

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