A WIDOWER whose late wife is buried at Worcester's Muslim Cemetery has leapt to the defence of Councillor Allah Ditta - saying he "went above and beyond" to help his family.

Sharif Mohamed, 33, says his family owe a lot to the Conservative politician, who tends to the Perdiswell graves voluntarily.

Your Worcester News can also reveal how Cllr Ditta was so prepared to come to the family's plight after the wife's sudden death at the age of 36, that he dipped into his own pockets to stump up between £500 and £600 so the funeral could go ahead.

As we revealed yesterday, Cllr Ditta has come under criticism after the deceased's distraught mother, 54-year-old Hiyam Ahmed, had to crawl in the dirt underneath the gates to see her daughter's grave, Angela Roseannah, who died last December.

Mrs Ahmed, from Shepherd's Bush, London, said she had arranged to meet Cllr Ditta on Sunday, September 14 to be let in, but he did not show.

The cemetery is locked on weekends.

Cllr Ditta says it was a misunderstanding and now Mr Mohamed, an IT engineer, has leapt to his defence.

"When my wife died so suddenly we were all in a state of shock and he went above and beyond to help us," he said.

"He was constantly checking on me, saying 'do you need this, do you need that', he was so good to us.

"That cemetery is ran by volunteers and when we were looking for somewhere to bury my wife, it was the only one in the Hereford and Worcestershire area that we could find and afford.

"I live in West London and I tend to it around every three weeks, he realised where I was travelling from and actually said to me at one point 'I will take care of this' and work on it for us, but he's never asked for a single penny.

"You don't get stuff like that, he really is a pillar of the community.

"I was £500 to £600 short for the funeral and he even dipped into his own pockets to make sure it could go ahead - he gave us everything."

Cllr Ditta's work on the cemetery spans over two decades, as he started it when he had to bury two of his own children there.

Following the altercation with Mrs Ahmed, she made a complaint to Worcester City Council, but it was rejected on the grounds it was a private matter.

She has told your Worcester News she is looking at ways to escalate her complaint further, but Cllr Ditta insists he did nothing wrong and did not guarantee he would be at the Central Mosque, where they agreed to meet.