A GRIEVING mum has won a court injunction to stop a father removing their tragic daughter's headstone, which he has threatened to smash.

Sophie Evans, aged five, died last May, 10 days after the freak accident in which a sweet lodged in her windpipe as she walked home from school.

Since then the little girl's parents Carl and Tracey Evans have separated and a family feud has developed over the future of the child's final resting place.

Initially Mr Evans, who owns the deeds to his daughter's plot, had blocked moves for the headstone, paid for by members of the Little Hulton community, to be placed on the grave.

He claimed he had been "cut out" of arrangements for the touching tribute to Sophie.

Eventually he allowed the teddy-bear shaped stone to be put in place but now a legal order has been issued after he threatened to remove the gravestone, claiming it was too upsetting for him to look at.

He has confirmed he has now been served with an injunction following a civil action brought by his estranged wife.

The case was heard at Manchester High Court's chancery division before being transferred to Liverpool High Court, earlier this month.

Mr Evans, who now lives in Farnworth, said: "This headstone is causing me grief and continues to remind me of the hassles that I've been caused.

"I have a right to say what I want to have done with the headstone because mine is the only name on the grave's deeds. I don't care what the community says.

"I want this injunction lifted. I will fight it every way I can. At the end of the day I own that grave and the law cannot stop me from doing what I want.

"I will just smash the thing up and nobody will get their hands on it.

"People are saying it belongs to the community but it doesn't at all. It was a gift and it belongs to the family.

"All I want to do is to put a headstone, paid for out of my own pocket, on the grave. I don't want that headstone."

Mr Evans, 35, confirmed he had recently approached funeral directors and handed over £23.50 to pay for the removal of the stone, which he revealed also had the wrong date for his daughter's death.

But before the stone could be taken from the plot in Agecroft Cemetery, the injunction was enforced and the order has since been extended.

Tracey and her two young sons are now back living at the family home in Graymar Road, Little Hulton, after she spent time at her parents' home following the marital split.

Speaking from her home Tracey, 25, said: "I'm just disgusted that he's willing to do things like this. This headstone was put in place for Sophie and to make her grave look nice."

And Mrs Evans' father Terry Jones, Sophie's grandfather, confirmed the order had been issued to stop the stone being removed.

He added: "The headstone is for Sophie. Carl Evans reckons he was never involved in the headstone being chosen but he certainly was.

"Tracey, being the mother of Sophie, says she has every right to have her say in the grave, even though her name is not on the deeds.

"We and the community of Little Hulton are fully supportive of Tracey and what she is doing."