Hull funeral director: Bodies left ‘like something from a horror scene’

It was a throwaway comment made by a worker casually employed by Robert Bush that gave an indication of the horror police were about to discover behind the doors of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors.

Talking to undertakers from another firm, who wanted to bring a body to the Legacy funeral parlour on Hessle Road, Patrick Moore told them: “You two don’t know the half of it, bodies have been there for years.”

It was, as Moore put it, “something from a horror scene”.

So shocking, that after looking into the cold storage area around 7pm on March 6 2024, the “shaken” undertakers immediately flagged down a passing police car.

Police found dozens of bodies in varying states of decomposition stored on racks on both sides of the “dirty and unkept” room.

Flowers, rings, teddies and cards with messages, personal effects meant to stay with the deceased, had been dropped on the floor or swept to the back of the room.

A police officer opened a paper bag to discover that what he thought was a baby bird, was actually a human foetus.

Bush was arrested four days later, on March 10 2024, after landing at Heathrow Airport following a trip to Arizona with his daughter on suspicion of preventing a lawful burial, fraud by false representation and fraud by abuse of position.

He immediately took sole responsibility saying his daughter Saskia was unaware, later adding: “I’ve f***ed it all up, everything, my whole world.”

Mr Paxton told a sentencing hearing that Bush operated “within the heart of the community for around fourteen years, entrusted by hundreds of bereaved families, in their time of need, to treat their loved ones with dignity and yet over almost twelve of those years Mr Bush breached that trust on an almost industrial scale.”

He gave grieving families the wrong ashes while their loved ones remains were left in his funeral parlour for months.

He presented families with the ashes of strangers, fraudulently sold funeral plans and stole cash donations.

Again and again relatives, who expressed their anguish in court, told how they were racked with feelings of blame for leaving their loved ones remains in the care of someone so “despicable”.

And they asked the question: “Why?”

Bush claimed to police that there were cashflow problems and he’d run up debts of £90,000. He also said he believed he could clear up the “backlog” within two to three months. He said he was paid a salary of £3,000 a month from the business.

However this was far from the truth.

Mr Paxton told the court between March 2017 and April 2024 £3.07m was paid into his business and personal accounts.

“During this time, his profligate personal spending and transfers to his wife, Vikki Bush, account for £879,655.

“Therefore this amount if not more, would have been available to his business operations.”

As Mr Paxton told the court, the cost of a single cremation was £500, and yet rather than deal the bodies that were entrusted to him “he chose to spend the money on himself and others”.

In his first police interview – he later denied it – Bush “admitted that he had been having issues with the refrigeration equipment and also that he had saved money by not running all of the units available.”

In his second interview when asked if he had anything to say to the hundreds of families affected, he replied: “No comment.”

Bush, who had earlier arrived at court, head bowed and his face covered by a mask, told reporters he was “sorry”.

But this had very little impact on relatives gathered in the court who yet again relived their trauma of discovering they'd cremated or buried the wrong person, and the horror of discovering that far from being at rest, their loved one was decomposing, sometimes just yards away from where they lived or worked on Hessle Road.

It has led to calls for the Government to legislate to root out all rogue operators from the funeral sector, and ensure that every person in every setting is treated with respect.