A MOTHER has told of her "living nightmare" after red tape delayed the return of her son's body from Bangkok.

Lee Middleton, 34, of Skipton Road, Colne, died in December after falling seven floors from a hotel in the Thai capital Bangkok.

But because police initially said his death was being treated as suicide - a claim denied by his family - it meant his insurance would have been invalid.

Therefore his family were facing having to pay £3,000 to fly him home and an extra a £5,000 to meet the medical bill.

But, after it was apparently written in his medical records that Mr Middleton's death was accidental, his mum Heather Britner, of Riverway, Barrowford has been told her son's body could be home in days.

She also revealed that she plans to spread the ashes of her son at Barrowford Cemetery across the river which her house overlooks.

She said: "We have had nothing in writing yet but we have been told by funeral directors in Bangkok that it is possible his body could be flown back late on Tuesday or on Wednesday.

"Hopefully the insurance will cover the cost as he was covered for accidental death but we have had no confirmation.

"But I am not thinking about that. All I want is his body back home.

"It has been a real waiting game; you feel nothing can be sorted when it is so far away and it has been a living nightmare."

Mr Middleton, who worked at Wardle Storeys factory, Earby, sent a text message to friends earlier in his stay saying that he had got in trouble with the local mafia.

He had arrived in the Thai capital six days earlier for a month-long holiday.

But the globetrotter, who had also travelled to Australia, Cuba and Mexico, later sent another message via text to say he was okay.

He fell to his death on December 17.