A SHERIFF is to decide the final resting place of a tragic Black Watch soldier as a bitter dispute between his mother and widow reached its final stages.

Private Mark Connolly, 24, died three years ago after fellow squaddie Paul McKay, 27, felled him with a single punch at a pub in Germany.

Private McKay was later cleared of manslaughter after a court martial heard he acted in self-defence. But three years on, Mark's body remains in a morgue in London after a rift between his wife Stacy Connolly and his mother Linda McComiskie over where he should be buried.

Stacy wants to lay Mark to rest in her home town of Forfar, Angus while his will executor wants him in the family plot in East Wemyss, Fife.

The final day of a civil proof at Forfar Sheriff Court yesterday heard final submissions.