Funeral director Robert Bush left baby’s remains on floor for two years and gave mum wrong ashes
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT Funeral director Robert Bush is being sentenced at Hull Crown Court for more than 65 offences which took place over 12 years with hundreds of victims and their grieving families impacted
Funeral director Robert Bush kept the remains of a stillborn baby in an envelope on the floor of his premises for almost two years.
A court heard today that Jasmine Beverley’s son Sunny, was born stillborn at about 18 weeks and she believed he had been given a funeral and cremated. In reality, his tiny remains lay on the floor of the Legacy Independent Funeral Directors premises, kept in what looked to a police officer to resemble an evidence bag.
Ms Beverley’s shocking case was just one of many where grieving families were given the wrong ashes by Bush while their loved ones’ remains lay decomposing in what one relative described as ‘the most horrendous horror story”. There were gasps from the packed public gallery today as they heard £3 million went into his bank. At the conclusion of proceedings expected to last several days, Bush will be sentenced for 67 offences.
Families impacted by Bush’s crimes have been at previous court appearances too(Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)
On his way into court, Bush replied “I’m sorry” when he was asked if he’d a message for the families. Bush pleaded guilty to offences spanning the course of 12 years, with hundreds of victims and their families impacted. The 48-year-old gave grieving families the wrong ashes while their loved ones’ bodies were left at his site for months. Impact statements from some of those whose loved ones Bush disrespected were being read to court today.
Victims shook with grief as they battled on through their tears, to bravely read out their victim impact statements. Some left the witness box, with their faces red raw from crying, after bravely telling the Judge about the damage Bush had caused.
As they wept, Bush tried to avoid catching their eye and would occasionally glance their way but quickly looked down if they looked at him. He spent much of the first day of sentencing staring at his feet and frowning as he was guarded by one prison officer in the glass lined dock.
One victim, Sarah Hepple, said: “When I was contacted by the Police to notify me about what had happened at Legacy I felt that a nightmare had begun.
“It was like a bullet that had ricocheted through a line of victims with such damaging after effects. How could someone do something so horrific? It felt like a grenade had been let off in my family and I was in complete disbelief and shock when I was informed by the Police of what had happened to my Mum. I felt the life had been sucked out of me.
“What Bush has done is beyond cruel. We should be slowly putting our hearts back together but instead of mending we’ve been left with the most horrendous horror story that we don’t know how to cope with.”
Bush pleaded guilty to 67 offences which took place over 12 years
For the most part, people in court were silent throughout, listening respectfully as relatives told how Robert Bush had thrown a ‘grenade’ into their lives.
Bush was finally brought to justice after police were contacted by someone with access to the Legacy Independent Funeral Directors site in March 2024, expressing concerns over “care of the deceased” at the Hull business.
When police searched the premises they found 31 bodies that should have been cremated months earlier, including a stillborn baby that had been there for almost two years. They also found more than 100 sets of ashes, some with name labels and letters attached to the box.
Bush looked down in the dock whenever he caught the eyes of his victims(Image: Elizabeth Cook/PA Wire)
Police found that many families of the deceased found at Legacy had already been given ashes by Bush, revealing widespread practice giving grieving relatives the wrong ashes. Investigators also learned that Bush had committed fraudulent trading in relation to funeral plans, where he would take payment for the plans but not pass any of the money on to the financial institutions who would hold it for when the funeral was required.
He also stole from charities by failing to pass on donations collected at funerals. In April, Bush pleaded guilty to 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, and theft from 12 charities including the Salvation Army and Macmillan Cancer Support. Bereaved families who were victims of Legacy Funeral Serviced attended Hull crown court today for the start of a five day hearing.
It is believed the Judge will hear up to 200 victim impact statements. Campaigner Karen Dry, 57, who entrusted both her parents’ remains to Bush, said: “I feel apprehensive but am praying for justice and a very long sentence. I’m nervous.
“It actually makes me really cross that he hasn’t been held on remand. They let him walk out of court a free man after he admitted these sheer evil acts. This has devastated families and the funeral industry at large.”
Bush kept his face covered as he arrived at court(Image: Annabel Lee-Ellis/PA Wire)
Bush says ‘I’m sorry’ as he arrives at court
Bereaved families stood alongside Bush in the court’s entrance foyer. Several stared at the shamed funeral director, who was flanked by two police officers, while others burst into tears. One said to him: “I hope you get tortured in jail like you tortured my grandad.”
They stood glaring at Bush as he arrived carrying a large black back, with one commenting ‘silence is golden’. Bush twisted his hands nervously as he waited, having removed the black face mask he’d used to cover up as he walked to the entrance. He was confronted by journalists as he arrived at court this morning. He was asked if he was sorry and whether that was his messages to the families, to which he replied: “Yes, I’m sorry.”
People stood outside the court in protest, demanding more regulation in the funeral industry(Image: Annabel Lee-Ellis/PA Wire)
He had already admitted 30 counts of fraud by false representation relating to bodies found at the site, and four “foetus allegations” of fraud, where he presented ashes to women falsely saying that they were “the remains of their unborn”. Bush also pleaded guilty to a further charge of fraud, covering the ashes of 57 people between 2017 and 2024, and one of the fraudulent trading relations to funeral plans between 2012 and 2024.
Funeral directors looked like ‘horror scene’
Legacy funeral directors looked like a ‘horror scene,’ according to witnesses who raised the alarm. As families wept in the public gallery, court heard how police found a “large number of bodies” at the premises in Hull.
One sergeant was left further “shocked” after finding a paper bag and opening it to find a foetus inside. Prosecutor Chris Paxton KC, said a sergeant found a bag and at first thought it contained a baby bird and only realised it was a human foetus because of the hospital ID band around the baby’s wrist, which said ‘Baby of Jasmine Beverley’ with a date of birth from May 2022 on it.
The prosecutor said the investigation established that these were the identification wristbands put round the waist of babies by the hospital when they were too small for them to be placed around the wist. Officers also found a naked dead body left lying on the floor and dead bodies with hospital ID bracelets still on their wrists and ankles.
Robert Bush’s sentencing is set to hear from potentially hundreds of victims(Image: Humberside Police)
Flowers and teddies had been swept to the sides on the floor. When Robert Bush was later arrested on a plane after returning from a holiday to Arizona he told officers: “I f**ked it all up, everything my whole world’.
Mr Paxton told the court Bush “breached trust on an almost industrial scale in a myriad of ways” by selling funeral plans when not authorised to do so, failing to bury bodies and providing the wrong ashes. He continued saying Bush “raised expectations, made false promises” and stole charity donations.
He said Bush’s crimes “impacted young and old alike across the community of Hull and beyond.” A judge was told the scandal was uncovered after two other funeral directors and another man, Patrick Moore, were called in to help Bush by recovering a body from a care home while he was away in March 2024.
The court heard Mr Moore told the funeral directors that Bush had told him in the past not to bring anybody back to Legacy. The prosector said: “He believed it was due to the smells coming from the fridge.” He also commented to them: “You two don’t know the half of it, bodies have been there for years.”
Police were left in shock at what they found at the site in Hull(Image: Danny Lawson/PA Wire)
He said he counted up to 29 bodies and described it as “something from a horror scene.” Mr Moore said he believed some of the bodies had been there since before he had begun to work at the company, which was some seven months previously, Mr Paxton said.
The directors were “shocked by what they saw”, said Chris Paxton, and flagged down a passing police car to whom they relayed the details before three officers attended the site. Inside, police found a “large number of human bodies within a cold storage area” in the building, Mr Paxton told the court. The bodies were “stored on the racks on both sides of the room” and the “vast majority were uncovered and in varying states of decomposition”, he added.
There was “evidence of human purefaction”, added the prosecutor. He continued: “Many bodies had hospital identity bracelets on their wrists or ankles. Some had biological hazard bracelets on, while others had no identifying markers.”
Families gasped as the court heard Robert Bush had £3.7million paid into his bank account over seven years. But the court heard the turnover reported to HMRC in these years does not reflect that figure. The prosecutor said the total amount defrauded from customers was more than £500,000.
Police were called to Legacy Funeral Directors in 2024 where they uncovered bodies left at the site(Image: PA)
“In the seven years between March 2017 and April 2024, some £3,076,522 was paid into his business and personal accounts excluding transfers between those accounts,” Mr Paxton told the court. He added: “During this time, his profligate personal spending and transfers to his wife account for £879,655.94.”
Mr Paxton said Bush told officers he had debts of around £90,000, adding that Bush faced “cashflow issues” and that “his plan had been to generate more business and clear the backlog within two to three months.”
Victims break down sobbing as they ask ‘why?’
One by one victims of Robert Bush told of their heartbreak and trauma at Hull crown court with many asking ‘Just why?’ Through sobs they told of suffering from PTSD, nightmares and sleepless nights. One woman told how she feels it would be better if she wasn’t here.
Some glared at Bush who remained emotionless in the dock, others shook with grief. They told of being “plagued” by “horrific pictures in their mind” of how their loved ones would look after months of being stored on a shelf ‘left to rot’.
David Alan Gorbutt, told how the ashes which he believed were his wife Susan’s were scattered in the place where her son’s had been, but it later transpired the ashes were not those of Susan Gorbutt. He said: “I feel sad and disappointed, but mostly guilty because I was unable to fulfil my wife’s last request, that I deal with her death quickly and arrange her cremation as quickly as possible at her request, because as Susan would say, ‘You know I do not like the cold’.
Susan Gorbutt’s husband believed he had scattered her ashes in the place her son’s had been – but found out later they weren’t hers(Image: PA)
“This would have been her worst nightmare what happened to her, she did not like the idea of lying there or being retained at the premises as she was. I am emotional giving this statement, it upsets me to think about this.”
Kathryn Howard read a victim’s personal statement relating to her long-term partner John Butler, who died aged 73 in June 2023. Ms Howard said: “Meeting Robert Bush changed my life. I lost my partner of 28 years in June 2023 through cancer and it felt like I’d lost a part of me.
“Over time I was slowly coming to terms with my loss but when I had a knock on the door on the night of March 11 2024 my world fell apart all over again. My partner, John, could be one of the bodies found at Legacy. My John. In the place I’d laid him to rest so many months before.”
Ms Howard said: “Rob promised me he’d look after John and he didn’t, not at all.” She said: “I feel like I’ve let John down – by choosing Legacy, by trusting Rob Bush. I just can’t believe what that man has done.
“How can he hurt people like that? Would he do it to his own family, treat them this way? An apology would not be enough for me. It could never take away the pain and grief that I feel for enduring not one but two funerals for my lovely John. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I want Rob Bush to look me in the eyes and explain himself. I want him to know that I will never, ever, get over this.”
Victim ‘left on rack wearing soiled hospital gown’
Christina George lost her brother Raymond Dagnall, who was 64 when he died July 2023. In her victim impact statement, she said: “I trusted him. I couldn’t have been more wrong about a man. “
She told how Bush would continually use the phrase ‘Bless you’. She continued: “These words used to sound endearing, peaceful and comforting. Now they just make me feel sick and the hairs prickle on the back of my neck.
Raymond Dagnall was left on a rack wearing a soiled hospital gown(Image: PA)
“I didn’t want to go and see Raymond when he had died because I was afraid of how he would look. I wanted to remember him as he was, smiling and happy. When I found out that Raymond was just left on a rack wearing a soiled hospital gown and still with hospital tubes in his body, the guilt was just too much. “
At one point the Judge pointed out there was a common theme of ‘guilt’ from the victims but he stressed what had happened was ‘not their responsibility’.
Mum lay there for nearly eight months
Byron Lill read a victim personal statement to Robert Bush’s sentencing hearing about what happened to his mother, Muriel Winning. When Mrs Winning died in 2023 at the age of 61, Mr Lill placed what he thought what her ashes on the windowsill of his home.
Her body was found at the Hessle Road premises 230 days, seven months and 15 days after her death, the court heard. Her remains were identified through dental records. An emotional Mr Lill had to compose himself a number of times as he told the court: “All the hard work and tireless care we willingly gave mum was for nothing.
Muriel Winning’s remains lay in the funeral home for almost eight months(Image: PA)
“She protected us her whole life from mistreatment, and it feels that the one time I could repay her and protect her, I couldn’t. Bush took this away from me. I work close to the Legacy premises on Hessle Road and drive past it every day. Knowing now that Mum was laying inside for almost eight months destroys me.”
He said: “Knowing she was still laying there when Bush smiled and handed me a box he said were her ashes, when she was still only a matter of feet from me, I just can’t accept.”
Mr Lill said: “Bush took advantage of us when we were at our most vulnerable. He abused his position of trust. Why? There will never be a good enough answer. There will never be an answer that I can accept.”
Bush ‘smiled as he handed over box of wrong ashes’
Jayne Rimmington told how her mum Shirley Wright was 86 years old when she died in September 2023. She told: “My happy memories are over-ridden with horror. I don’t feel like I can celebrate Mother’s Day or her birthday. I can’t even look at her picture without thoughts of her decomposing body coming into my mind. When she died, her photo took pride of place in the living room. Now it is hidden away in the hallway. “
She said the thought of her mum laying there for six months has left her with disturbing images. Horrific pictures came into my mind of what she would look like, and they wouldn’t go away. They still don’t. I was told that a photograph of dogs was recovered with mum. This both shocked and upset me. Mum didn’t have any dogs, she didn’t even like them and we had not left any photographs with her.
Shirley Wright’s family were handed photographs that did not belong to her(Image: PA)
“Not only had someone else’s property been placed with mum, which felt a violation in itself, but another family had given Bush this photograph to be with their loved one and they were left without it. I feel so much guilt for choosing Robert Bush and Legacy. This was the last thing we could do for mum and he repaid us by doing this.
“I trusted him. He stood there smiling, handing me the box, when she was still laying there, rotting away! It’s a purely evil thing to do. I know a body is only a vessel and the spirit is gone, but she is still my mum. They were the hands I held and the face I kissed. He betrayed her and he betrayed our trust.
“The guilt I feel will not go away even though we always had our best intentions to do the very best for mum. Would he have done this to his own parents? Did he ever think he could get away with this? Just why? Was it really all just for money? We had left money with him, collected in mum’s memory, for Cancer Research. We feel so cheated that they never received it.”
Robet Bush rubs his eye as he sits in court during his sentencing(Image: Elizabeth Cook/PA Wire)
‘Even if he grovelled to us on his knees it wouldn’t be enough’
Families asked ‘if you can’t trust a funeral undertaker, who can you trust?’ as they told how Robert Bush ‘shattered’ their world. They told even if he ‘grovelled’ on his knees, an apology would not be enough to make up for the ‘torture’ they’ve suffered.
Bush spent most of the time in the dock looking down as his victims told Hull crown court about their heartache and how he’d ‘betrayed’ them. He occasionally glanced up briefly at his victims as they fought their grief to give evidence, while others’ statements were read out by the prosecution.
Jade Monro bravely told how she’d suffered “mental torture’ after her dad Tony Monro, 65, who died in 2023, was “left and forgotten” at Legacy. “I always thought I could trust a funeral director…it angers me that there are no regulations in the funeral business.
“Since I was told by police officers that my Dad’s body was still at Legacy in March 2024, I have felt nothing but distress, mental torture, heartache and pain. Never in my wildest dreams did I think something like this could ever happen. How could someone neglect my Dad in this way?”
Audrey Leach’s daughter noticed white flecks in the grey ashes of what she believed were her mum’s remains(Image: PA)
While Amy Leach looked directly at Bush, who quickly looked down as she told him how he’d “betrayed” her family. Her grandma Audrey Leach, passed away on November 4th 2023. “Our family had had no dealings with the police prior to this, When they knocked on our door at teatime on Friday 8th March 2024 and frightened my family to death.”
“As a family, an apology from Rob Bush will not be good enough for us. Even if he grovelled to us on his knees if wouldn’t be enough. I want to hear him explain himself, explain why he’s done this to us and to so many others. I don’t want him to plead guilty and take that opportunity away from us; we need to know what he has thinking, we need to know why.
“As a family, an apology from Rob Bush will not be good enough for us. Even if he grovelled to us on his knees it wouldn’t be enough. I want to hear him explain himself, explain why he’s done this to us and to so many others…we need to know what he has thinking, we need to know why.”
Rea Burton’s grandad David Burton died aged 75 on 21st October 2023. “As one of the families affected by the Legacy Funeral Directors situation, we are angry, sad and broken. When we received the news, four months after his funeral, that Robert Bush had never laid our beloved Dad and Grandad to rest, it shattered our world. The grief we were slowly beginning to live with then consumed us for a second time.”
Bush told David Burton’s granddaughter it was a ‘brilliant idea’ to put his ashes into a necklace and tattoo ink as he gave her the wrong ones(Image: PA)
The court heard Ms Burton told Bush the family were having the ashes put into necklace charms and her uncle was going to have some put into ink for a tattoo. He described this as “a brilliant idea”.
“We had mistakenly placed our trust in Rob, ” she said. “He did not treat Grandad with the dignity and respect he deserved. In reality, Rob had deceived us. He had abandoned and hidden our loved one for months and had given us a stranger’s ashes, with a smile on his face.
“The hurt, betrayal and confusion this has caused our family was hard to live with. There have been many sleepless nights due to the guilt of using Rob and feeling like we had somehow let our loved one down. After everything had come to light, we began to look back and question things. Was Grandad actually in the coffin when we said our goodbyes? Where was his body? Whose ashes do we have? Questions no-one should have to ask.”
John Banyard told how his close friend John Carlill had died aged 77 and said in his victim impact statement: “If you can’t trust a funeral undertaker, who can you trust? How can someone be so callous, cold and calculated?
“Bush shook my hand and was saying ‘god bless’ to me. You let them take the stress to take some of it off you. What he said sounded good at the time, but then to be betrayed the way I have makes you lose faith in people.” Mr Banyard went to see Carlill at Legacy’s premises but was told by Robert Bush his friend “didn’t look good” so the lid of the casket was kept down.
The sentencing at Hull Crown Court is listed to take place over five days, and is expected to hear from more than 100 victims. Bush, formerly of Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire, but now of Otley, West Yorkshire, is on conditional bail.