A grieving mother hopes to finally lay her son to rest as police still struggle to piece together the last moments of his life.

The body of Warren Ullyett, 28, was found washed up on a French beach in Sangatte, Calais, on December 12 – more than a month after he was last seen in Herne Bay.

He was found to be carrying his passport, but his mother, Rani Ullyett, says police investigations have found it was not used in the weeks before his death.

“All I know is December 12 was when they found Warren in France, but he could have died weeks before that,” she said.

“It’s frustrating. I’m just trying to kill time as I wait.

“They haven’t got anything to tell me.”

Mrs Ullyett travelled with funeral directors to France on January 12 to repatriate Warren’s body, with an inquest opening in the UK three days later.

A second post-mortem, which followed a first in France carried out shortly after Warren’s body was discovered, has been conducted in England but did not establish the cause of his death.

“It hasn’t revealed any new information,” Mrs Ullyett said.

“Nothing has been released by the French after the first post-mortem, but, by opening an inquest, the English can apply to them to share whatever information they have.

"It’s horrible bureaucracy.”

Warren’s body is being held by British police, who are struggling to formally identify him given the length of time he may have spent in the water.

However, his family hope to hold his funeral on today at Barham Crematorium, after initially fearing it would be delayed until the beginning of March.

Mrs Ullyett hopes it will allow Warren to be laid to rest with “a bit of pomp and ceremony”.

“I know Warren would have liked to hold up the traffic for a while and have a massive cortege of cars going to his funeral,” she said.

“It will be really inconvenient and hopefully people will be saying, ‘woah, who’s that?’”

Mrs Ullyett is angry at the way the authorities have handled the investigation, and says she will be lodging a formal complaint once the inquest is concluded.

She says police have “failed” her son by not taking his disappearance seriously.

Warren had been blighted by run-ins with the law, drug use and post-traumatic stress disorder after being shot eight years ago.

He was well known around Herne Bay and was nicknamed Hightower because of his 6ft 7in frame.

“As a mum, it’s been very frustrating,” Mrs Ullyett said.

“Warren knew hundreds of people and it just seemed really bizarre that nobody had seen somebody so popular.

“He did have dealings with drugs, so that may have had something to do with it.

“I don’t want anything sinister to have gone on.”

Detective Inspector Richard Allen said Kent Police had been liaising with the French authorities since the discovery of Warren’s body.

“He was last seen on November 4 and our enquiries to establish his movements between then and the date his body was found are ongoing and will form a report for the coroner,” he said.

"We would like to hear from anyone who saw Warren between those dates and has not spoken to us already.”

If you have any information, call police on 01843 222289 or the anonymous Crimestoppers hotline on 0800 555111, quoting reference number SI/ZY/011253/17.