A DECADE after the shooting dead of police officer Sharon Beshenivsky, her mother remains locked in dispute to get a headstone for her grave which is marked by a rotting wooden cross.

Grieving Jenny Booth always avoids the date of her daughter's murder in Bradford and was deliberately in Australia on the tenth anniversary last week.

She prefers to visit her daughter's grave quietly and privately at Nab Wood Cemetery in Shipley every Christmas.

A minute's silence was observed in a public display of remembrance at 3.25pm on November 18, the time of the call to the travel agents in Morley Street, Bradford, where PC Beshenivsky, 38, was killed during a robbery in 2005.

She became only the second British policewoman - after PC Yvonne Fletcher - to be shot dead on duty.

Members of PC Beshenivsky's family, including her widowed husband Paul, laid flowers at a memorial to her in Bradford city centre, alongside others including Bradford District Commander, Chief Superintendent Simon Atkin, and the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Joanne Dodds, who both gave tribute speeches.

But Mrs Booth, 69, said: "I always want to be away at the time of the anniversary, I don't want to be part of all that pomp and ceremony and I can't do with all that when her grave still has no headstone on it.

"It's been ten years and it's a disgrace.

"I've been going on about this for ten years, but Paul still hasn't put a stone there.

"How long is it going to take?"

PC Beshenivsky's murder left two young children, Lydia and Paul, without a mother.

They were cared for by Michelle Sherbourne, a nanny Mr Beshenivsky turned to for help and to whom he is now engaged.

The plot in a corner of Nab Wood Cemetery bears only its original wooden cross as a grave marker - now mildewed and rotting.

As the tenth anniversary of her death passed, it bore no special flowers, merely a jar holding a fistful of dead yellow chrysanthemums and a small pot of dying carnations.

Two dirty stone hearts with inscriptions to a beloved daughter and the other to a missed sister and a mouldy framed eulogy are the only other items in tribute to PC Beshenivsky.

A well-wisher had also placed a Remembrance Day Poppy on the simple cross.

Mr Beshenivsky told the Telegraph & Argus four years ago that a family rift had prevented him from putting a fitting headstone on the plot and that he would not be bullied into it.

He also said he could not find suitable words to be set in stone.

Speaking to the T&A yesterday, Mr Beshenivsky said his previous explanation remained unchanged and he therefore felt no need to repeat it.

"There are a few issues involved in this and I have my own reasons," he said.

Mrs Booth said she also has no contact with her grandchildren.

"After Sharon's death he told me he never wanted to see me again and I'm just not part of their lives," she said.

"All I want is a headstone on my daughter's grave - and this year we nearly went and bought one ourselves," she said turning to husband Tony, as she stood in the kitchen of her home in Idle.

"We’ve even taken legal advice on how we could get a headstone, but been told it's not possible," Mr Booth said.

Mrs Booth continued: "My hands are tied, I have no say - he's got the right to remove the stone if I put one there.

"If he'd allow me to put one on, I'd do it straight away.

"With his permission I'll put a proper headstone there - and I'll be able to find the words for Sharon."