Funeral director treated deceased 'like a piece of meat'

A court has been hearing from the families whose loved ones' remains were recovered from Robert Bush's funeral parlour in Hull

A grieving family has accused a former funeral director of treating their deceased father "like a piece of meat".

Robert Bush is being sentenced at Hull Crown Court this week, having admitted 67 offences including failing to bury and cremate people at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors.

The court heard the disgraced undertaker told Terence White's relatives he had been cremated and they were horrified when his body was one of 35 found at the Hull funeral parlour in March 2024.

On Tuesday, the court also heard a grieving daughter describe how the horrors at the Hessle Road site had given her nightmares of "piled up bodies" that she likened to scenes from the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz.

The faces of the victims whose bodies and ashes were recovered from Legacy's premises in 2024

This story contains details some might find distressing.

Some 35 bodies and more than 100 sets of ashes were found at Legacy, which was run by Bush.

The court heard he falsely told families they had been cremated or buried and gave them the ashes of strangers.

Opening the five-day sentencing on Monday, the prosecution outlined "horror scenes" from the parlour, which included discovering a stillborn baby in a brown paper bag.

More than 30 bereaved families who used the undertaker's services have described the devastation and psychological impact of the 48-year-old's actions.

On Tuesday, the court heard from the family of 73-year-old Terence White, whose body was recovered from Legacy more than two months after his death on Christmas Eve 2023.

In a victim impact statement, his daughter Angela Scottow said the family arranged a cremation and after contacting the crematorium for a certificate, later found there was no record of one having taken place.

"Dad was such a lovely man and Robert Bush treated him like a piece of meat," she said.

She later said: "He knew exactly what he was doing. He stripped all dignity from our loved ones, and for what? Money? He disgusts me."

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The court also heard how the family of Jim Porter, 80, whose body was recovered from Legacy with his hospital identification bands still on his wrists and ankle, had noted his coffin did not look big enough for him.

In her statement, his daughter Tina Thames said: "I was devastated. I had nightmares and thoughts of bodies, just piled up came into my mind.

"The only way I can describe it is like seeing images of the bodies found in Auschwitz during [World War Two]."

Bush, 48, claimed he had debts of £90,000

Kadie Laws, whose father Darren Laws' ashes were recovered from Legacy, sobbed while reading her statement.

She recalled shouting "it better not be my dad in there" when she first heard about the police investigation.

Laws, who suffers from PTSD, depression and anxiety following the loss of her father, said she felt "extreme anger" towards Bush.

"My family and I are never going to heal from this trauma. I'll never be myself again and that's because of Robert Bush."

Kerry Webb became emotional as she told the court how her mother, Julie Webb, was one of the bodies found by police.

She recalled a "pungent smell" the day before the funeral but it was "quickly forgotten about".

Instead of being cremated, her mother was left in the parlour and it took police seven weeks to identify her, Webb said.

"How could someone be so cruel? Seven weeks of heartbreak, of not knowing if it was truly my mum inside that coffin, of not knowing what had happened to her body, of being terrified that somebody had hurt her."

The moment Robert Bush is arrested at Heathrow airport

On Monday, prosecutor Chris Paxton KC told the packed court bodies had been discovered "on the racks" of a cold storage area and one was found on a stretcher on the floor.

The vast majority were "uncovered and in varying states of decomposition", including a stillborn baby, whose remains were found in a brown paper bag. Officers searching the premises initially thought the bag contained a baby bird.

Paxton said police found the funeral home "dirty and unkempt", with flowers, teddies and cards strewn on the floor - items "loved ones would have wanted" for their deceased family members.

The scale of Bush's offending was discovered by chance while he was on holiday, after he asked two funeral directors from another firm to remove a body from a care home.

The two undertakers managed to see inside the Hessle Road premises and were left "shaken", tipping off police.

Bush, of Otley, West Yorkshire, was arrested when he landed at Heathrow Airport days later and told police he had debts of about £90,000, Paxton said.

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