A MOTHER whose teenage son was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq said she did not accept the Army's apology for confusion over how he died.

Private Michael Tench, 18, of The Light Infantry, was "unlawfully killed by blast wounds caused by an explosion" while on a Warrior patrol in Basra on January 21, a coroner ruled yesterday.

But Private Tench's mother, Janice Murray, said she was wrongly informed about her son's injuries, saying: "No one from the Army could be truthful regarding the injuries my son sustained or exactly his cause of death."

Giving evidence at a Coroner's Court hearing in Sunderland, Mrs Murray said she initially heard her son had died of a chest wound and that his body was intact.

However, several days later she was informed that his funeral needed to be postponed for three days for DNA tests to be carried out on separate body parts.

Mrs Murray, 45, from the Carley Hill area of Sunderland, said she was then told by a funeral director that both her son's legs and an arm were missing from the coffin. It was not until August 14, when she saw the photographs of her son's body, that she learnt the true extent of his injuries, the court heard.

A post-mortem examination finally showed that Pte Tench received multiple severe injuries to all areas of his body, which proved fatal, including the loss of one arm and one leg.

Coroner Derek Winter said: ''The body of Pte Tench was not intact and only after DNA analysis were certain human remains assigned to Pte Tench and reunited with his body, on January 29."

Mr Winter told the court that he hoped such misunderstandings between the Army and families would be avoided in future.

"While this was an honest mistake on the part of the Army, for which it has apologised and reassured her that it will review procedures, it did lead to a degree of mistrust about the accuracy of information provided to the family by the Army," he said.

He added: "I do hope that in future steps can be taken to avoid this situation from arising and if it were to arise that amends are made promptly.

"It is of the utmost importance that relatives of the deceased are kept fully and correctly informed as to progress or lack of it and exactly why certain procedures are being undertaken."

Earlier at the inquest, the adjutant general of the Army's principal personnel office, Retired Colonel Hugh Welby-Everard, had apologised to Mrs Murray for the misunderstanding.

But after hearing yesterday's verdict, Mrs Murray said: "I must state that I do not accept 'Sorry' from the Army. It's too late and it's been too long."

She added: "In the long-run I ask for openness and factual truth to be relayed and to be given to other service personnel families."