A fraudulent funeral director broke the trust of families on an \u201calmost industrial scale\u201d as their loved ones\u2019 bodies were left \u201crotting away\u201d, a court has heard.<\/p>\n
Robert Bush, owner of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull, appeared at Hull crown court on Monday for a five-day sentencing hearing. He previously pleaded guilty to 67 offences, including 30 counts of preventing lawful and decent burial.<\/p>\n
Several family members read out their victim impact statements to the court, recounting nightmares and PTSD from Bush\u2019s offending, with some breaking down in tears and struggling to speak.<\/p>\n
On his way into court, Bush, 48, from Otley, West Yorkshire, told reporters he was sorry to the families affected.<\/p>\n
Several family members recalled Bush \u201csmiling\u201d as he handed them the wrong ashes, while their loved ones remained secretly uncremated. When Jayne Rimmington came to collect the ashes of her 86-year-old mother, Shirley Wright, in October 2023, she was surprised by how heavy they were. Bush claimed this was due to her \u201cbone density\u201d.<\/p>\n
The body of Wright was recovered on the Legacy premises five months after her death. \u201cI trusted him,\u201d said Rimmington. \u201cHe stood there smiling, handed me the box, when she was still laying there, rotting away. It\u2019s a purely evil thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vicky Mitchell received the ashes of her father, Colin Wainman, in a navy blue box inside a Hobbycraft bag, with Bush apologising at the time for not having any gift bags at hand. The 69-year-old\u2019s body was recovered on 8 March 2024, 198 days after his death.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy opinion is he is a charlatan,\u201d Mitchell told the court. \u201cA gravedigger from the 1800s. He didn\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Chris Paxton KC said Bush \u201coperated within the heart of the community for around 14 years, entrusted by hundreds of bereaved families in their time of need\u201d. However, Bush \u201cbreached that trust on an almost industrial scale in a myriad of ways\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a search of the Legacy premises in March 2024, Humberside police found many bodies left uncovered and in varying states of decomposition, stored on racks on both sides of the room. One naked body still lay on a stretcher on the floor. Flowers, rings, teddy bears and cards with messages, intended to be placed with loved ones, had been swept under the floor.<\/p>\n
The removal of bodies took two days and several officers, including a disaster identification team. Bodies had to be identified by dental records, DNA examination or fingerprints.<\/p>\n
Police also uncovered the remains of an 18-week stillborn boy, identified as Sunny Beverley-Conlin, on the floor of the premises, inside what appeared to be a police evidence bag. His mother, Jasmine Beverley, believed he had been given a funeral and cremated.<\/p>\n
Rea Burton, granddaughter of David Burton, attended the Legacy funeral home to collect his ashes in December 2023. Bush asked Burton what the family intended to do with the ashes, to which Burton replied they would be put in necklace charms for the family and her uncle would put some into the ink for a tattoo. Bush told her this was a \u201cbrilliant idea\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn reality, Rob had deceived us,\u201d said Burton. \u201cHe had abandoned and hidden our loved one for months and had given us a stranger\u2019s ashes with a smile on his face.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the funeral service of 94-year-old Norman Bridger, his daughter, Karen King, placed what she believed to be her father\u2019s ashes into lockets worn by her and her mother. \u201cI now feel violated [that] I had some unknown person\u2019s ashes so close to me,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
To thank him for his work on the funeral, King had also given Bush a bottle of port. \u201cThe smile on his face as he accepted it will always haunt me,\u201d she told the court.<\/p>\n
David Gorbutt visited Bush to collect what he believed were the ashes of his wife, Susan, in September 2023. He was handed a paper bag containing a small cardboard box with her name. When Gorbutt told Bush he \u201chope[d] they\u2019re the right ones\u201d, Bush replied: \u201cYes, they are definitely the right ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gorbutt scattered the ashes at the same site as her son\u2019s in a local country park, as per Susan\u2019s wishes. Her body was recovered at the Legacy premises six months after her death.<\/p>\n
In his statement, Gorbutt said he felt guilty for being \u201cunable to fulfil my wife\u2019s last request, that I deal with her death quickly\u201d as she wanted, recalling that \u201cSusan would say: \u2018You know I do not like the cold.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Like many families, Gorbutt also called for stronger regulation of the funeral industry. \u201cIt is hard to believe a person needs more permits to sell burgers than to deal with the dead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fraudulent funeral director broke the trust of families on an \u201calmost industrial scale\u201d as their loved ones\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-714123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}