A GRIEVING father whose two children were gassed to death by their mother is making plans to hold a memorial service for them after losing the battle to have their bodies returned to the UK for burial.

Justin Mellersh was hoping for last minute intervention by the British Government to get the bodies of Yaanis, eight and six-year-old Mira exhumed after hearing that the family of their mother, who abducted them two years ago, had already buried them in Turkey.

But the devastated 47-year-old is now focusing on holding a memorial service for them at the Minstead home of his parents, where the children spent much of their childhood.

The family are now calling for an inquiry and a public apology from the Turkish Government for the way in which the case was handled.

Justin’s dad Nick and sister-in-law Sylvia Huxtable, who had been with him in Turkey to support him, have today returned to their Minstead home, while Justin headed back to his home in Germany.

The youngsters’ bodies were found in a Turkish farmhouse, alongside their German mother, Elke, who had abducted them from their Hampshire dad, who had been given full custody of the children.

Since their tragic deaths on November 18, Justin has been embroiled in a legal battle to fly his children’s bodies back to the UK, after Turkish authorities handed the bodies over to the mother’s Turkish family for burial before Justin got the chance to see them one last time.

Now the children are buried, the Mellersh family have decided to end their fight and allow them to rest in peace.

Natasha Mellersh, 25, first cousin of Yaanis and Mira and godmother to Yaanis, said: “In many ways I’m relieved that it’s all over and that it’s all been decided.

“Hopefully we can hold a memorial service here [in Minstead] and sort of close this chapter, which has been a nightmare for all the people involved – it’s been an emotional rollercoaster.

“There needs to be an inquiry into what went wrong on so many different levels throughout the whole process.”