RACHEL Whitear's mother has told of her grief during the "traumatic" exhumation of the 21-year-old's body and criticised a controversial portrait of the heroin addict.

Pauline Holcroft, from Ledbury, said a service held a day before the heroin addict's coffin was removed was "terribly emotional".

And she labelled a painting of her daughter, which depicts blood streaming from her mouth, as "totally gratuitous".

"I actually found Monday far more traumatic with the service in the church and the prayer of exhumation at the graveside than I did on Tuesday," Mrs Holcroft told a national newspaper.

Miss Whitear's body was removed last Tuesday from a churchyard in Withington, near Hereford, for forensic examination as part of a new investigation into her death. Miss Whitear was found slumped in her student bedsit in Devon in May 2000.

"It was terribly emotional on Monday because it conjured up pictures of Rachel alive and of course it brought back memories of when we were there four years ago for her funeral," added Mrs Holcroft, who hopes an inquest into the death may be re-opened.

"After we left they put up the tent over her grave and began digging. I hadn't intended to go back but I had calmed down a bit by Tuesday morning and we made a decision to be there with her coffin when it was brought out.

"On Tuesday morning I thought, 'Well, come on, finding out the truth is what we wanted, for Heaven's sake, and if the exhumation has got to be done then it's got to be done.'

"And then when she was brought back in the afternoon I was able to think, 'Well, she's back in her resting place now. It's over.'"

Mrs Holcroft condemned the portrait of Miss Whitear, which has just been put on display by art collector Charles Saatchi.

"The picture was totally gratuitous and the timing was utterly tasteless," she said.

"We have found out that Saatchi bought it a year ago and yet they decided to display it at the same time that Rachel was being exhumed."