This story contains details some might find distressing.<\/p>\n
I’ve reported on many criminal cases before, but nothing like that of undertaker Robert Bush.<\/p>\n
Now the case is over, we can report on what it was like to follow a story that began when whistleblowers raised concerns about Legacy Independent Funeral Directors with Humberside Police in March 2024.<\/p>\n
Bush, the former owner of Legacy in Hull, admitted 67 offences, including fraudulent trading, denying 30 people a decent and proper burial, and giving some bereaved relatives the ashes of strangers.<\/p>\n
The scale of Bush’s offending was extraordinary. Police identified 300 victims.<\/p>\n
Some were families who had paid Bush for funeral plans and services.<\/p>\n
Others were relatives left questioning whether the ashes they had received really belonged to their loved ones.<\/p>\n
There were also the deceased, whose bodies he had been trusted to bury or cremate with dignity.<\/p>\n
Bush’s scores of victims meant seats in courtroom four at Hull Crown Court for his five-day sentencing were in high demand.<\/p>\n
Every day, diligent ushers stood like bouncers at the court’s heavy, soundproof doors. They ensured families were given priority to see the man who wronged their loved ones face justice.<\/p>\n
Court staff escorted them in with boxes of tissues, paper cups of water and a kind hand on their arms. Some were wiping away tears before they even walked into the room.<\/p>\n
Fearful of what they were about to hear. <\/p>\n
Their worries were not misplaced. The details of Bush’s crimes were harrowing.<\/p>\n
Among them, discarding stillborn premature baby Sunny Beverley-Conlin on the floor in a paper bag, and abandoning one victim naked on the floor to “let nature take its course”.<\/p>\n
They are descriptions one grieving mother said “will never leave me”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story contains details some might find distressing. I’ve reported on many criminal cases before, but nothing like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-724228","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\/724228","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=724228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}