A grieving mum is unable to claim her daughter’s ashes because her violent ex-boyfriend signed for their collection.

Barking and Dagenham Post: LJ Bluestar-HillLJ Bluestar-Hill (Image: Archant)

Chloe Turner, 24, was abused by L J Bluestar-Hill, who broke her arm, cut her legs with razors and knives and beat her with a stool leg as she recovered from losing their nine-week-old daughter Alexis to cot death in 2012.

Despite Bluestar-Hill – formerly known as Luke Hill – being sentenced to nine years and four months in prison in July 2013, the 26-year-old still retains legal rights of Alexis’s ashes, leaving Chloe unable to find peace.

“I think it’s disgraceful that I don’t have a right – as a mother – to have her back,” she told the Post. “It’s getting to the stage where it’s making me really ill. I’m grieving because I haven’t got her.”

Chloe, who lives in Dagenham, suffered daily black eyes at the hands of her ex-boyfriend and was also beaten regularly with belts.

An injunction prevents her from directly or indirectly contacting Bluestar-Hill – who pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and two charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm – so even when he is released she would not be able to collect the ashes from him.

She has spent the past four years being told her daughter’s ashes will remain at Adam & Greenwood Funeral Home in Billericay, Essex, despite Chloe having her daughter’s birth and death certificates.

“I’ve been on the phone to them [Adam & Greenwood] every day saying I want her home with me,” Chloe said.

“All they keep saying is he [Bluestar-Hill] needs to sign for it.

“He [Bluestar-Hill] hasn’t even bothered to call up and say he wants her ashes.”

Admitting she often cries herself to sleep, Chloe says her mum, Lorraine Jones, 49, has been her rock, along with her two-year-old daughter, Jessie Turner, and her new boyfriend.

Lorri Turner, senior manager at Adam & Greenwood, said the company was powerless to release the ashes without Bluestar-Hill’s consent.

“This is a deeply upsetting situation and I fully understand how difficult it is,” he said. “We want to resolve this as quickly as we can and we are continuing to explore all avenues.

“Industry regulations dictate that the release of cremated remains must be to the applicant who has originally applied for the cremation, in this case the father.

“Unfortunately, we therefore have no alternative but to release the ashes to the applicant unless we receive the appropriate written consent to release to another party.”