A SIMPLE graveside service was held at noon on Tuesday as the body of 11-year-old Phyllis Porter -- daughter of Geoffrey Porter who is serving a life sentence for the murder of Bolton prostitute Carly Bateman -- was reburied in the family grave at The Parish Church of St Luke, at Orrell.

The service took place just hours after the young girl's body had been exhumed at dawn by police who are trying to establish the cause of her death nearly seven years ago.

Her mother, Ann Porter, along with brother Patrick Wrigley and an uncle, arrived at the sandstone church of St Luke on the outskirts of Wigan ahead of the hearse carrying her daughter's body. The trio was taken to the churchyard burial ground in an unmarked black police car.

Greater Manchester Police instigated the exhumation of Phyllis's body early yesterday for forensic tests -- undertaken at Wigan Infirmary -- to try to determine what caused her death in November 1996.

She was found dead at home in Kitt Green Road on Wigan's Marsh Green estate and a post mortem examination carried out at the time did not ascertain the cause of death of the sports mad youngster who attended Highfield School at Mosley Common, Tyldesley.

Wearing a black and yellow anorak and grey trousers, Mrs Porter followed the pall bearers who carried Phyllis's coffin, which was topped by a simple floral tribute, for reinterment in the grave Phyllis shares with her grandfather.

Coroner Jennifer Leeming was in attendance and a graveside service was conducted by Mormon Bishop Thomas Guest and Bishop Turner.

Earlier in the day Mrs Porter has said: "It is going to be a difficult day for all of us but there is a chance they may find something new.

"Phyllis was a beautiful girl, she was very, very outgoing and very bubbly. Everyone who knew her liked her."

She said she had spoken to her husband and added that they were both upset about their daughter's remains being disturbed.

As exclusively revealed in the Bolton Evening News earlier this year, police relaunched the investigation into Phyllis's death in January. Det Chief Insp Tony Cook said: "We always treated Phyllis's death as suspicious. We are hopeful the exhumation will bring new information to light."

Phyllis's father was jailed for the murder of 17-year-old vice girl Carly Bateman whose partly clothed body was found in an alleyway in Crawford Avenue, the Haulgh, Bolton. He was informed of the exhumation by his solicitor on Monday in Wakefield Prison, where he is serving his sentence.