Prosecutor Chris Paxton KC said: ‘In this bag was a white cotton pad. It looked like a dressing-type pad used by hospitals.
‘[The officer] opened the pad and inside was a tiny item which he initially thought was a baby bird. Although initially unsure, he suspected it was a human foetus.’
Two wristbands around his waist identified that he was born to Jasmine in May 2022.
She said: ‘I discovered that he was still in there almost two years after we’d had the funeral and had him cremated, which wasn’t the case.
‘It was quite a distressing time to discover that what you thought had happened, hadn’t actually happened.
‘We’d always wondered where he’d been found, and we didn’t know whether or not it was with the rest of the people.
‘When we found out he was there with everybody, it sort of gave me a little peace that he wasn’t on his own.’
Bush is currently being sentenced at Hull Crown Court in a five-day hearing.
On the first day, there were audible gasps from the public gallery as relatives heard details of what was found in the funeral parlour.
The court was told he had breached the trust of grieving families ‘on an almost industrial scale’ while spending their money on himself.
Mr Paxton said he had ‘operated within the heart of the community for around 14 years, entrusted by hundreds of bereaved families, in their time of need, to treat their loved ones with dignity’.
He added: ‘And yet over almost 12 of those years, Mr Bush breached that trust on an almost industrial scale in a myriad of ways – by selling funeral plans when not authorised to do so; by failing to bury or cremate loved ones; by falsely claiming he had done so when presenting families with ashes which were not those of their loved ones.’
His offending was discovered by chance while he was in Arizona. He contacted Gary Pickering and Steve Emmerson, directors of Evergreen Funeral Directors, asking them to help with a body recover while he was away.
Patrick Moore – a casual worker for Legacy – helped the two men collect the body from the care home, but said Bush had told him ‘not to bring anyone back to Legacy or help put a body into the fridge area’.
The court heard Mr Moore then told the men: ‘You two don’t know the half of it, bodies have been there for years.’
After becoming suspicious that operations at Legacy were not as they should be, Mr Emmerson telephoned Mr Moore and asked how many bodies were there.
Mr Moore counted up to 29 bodies, describing it as being something from a ‘horror scene’.
The court heard Mr Emmerson and Mr Pickering persuaded Mr Moore to let them into Legacy’s site on Hessle Road, despite him initially being afraid of ‘repercussions’.
The two men were ‘shocked’ at what they saw at Legacy and flagged down a passing police car to report it.
Mr Paxton said that when police attended, they found bodies stored on the racks of a cold storage area, with the vast majority ‘uncovered and in varying states of decomposition’.
Mr Paxton said the funeral home was ‘dirty and unkept’ and there were items including flowers, rings, teddies, and cards on the floor, which ‘loved ones would have wanted to stay with their deceased family members’.
Bush was arrested at Heathrow Airport when he returned from his holiday on March 10 2024, and after being cautioned, said: ‘Saskia (his daughter) is unaware of that, that I have deceived everyone from that.’
He later said: ‘I’ve f***** it all up, everything, my whole world.’
In his first police interview, Bush said he had developed a cash-flow problem because ‘people did not always pay,’ and had debts of about £90,000.
He said he struggled with maintaining the payments for the leases, and believed there were about 30 bodies at the Hessle Road site, with five to six of them ‘recent’ and waiting to be cremated.
Mr Paxton said: ‘In respect of the older bodies that had not been cremated due to cash flow issues, his plan had been to generate more business and clear the backlog within two to three months.’
He believed the oldest body that was retained was from April 2023. He said these were generally of older people above the age of 60.
In his second interview, he answered ‘no comment’ to most of the questions about the bodies found at Legacy.
The court heard that between March 2017 and April 2024, more that £3 million was paid into his business and personal accounts but the to HMRC in these years does not reflect this.
During this time, Bush’s ‘profligate personal spending’ and transfers to his wife accounted for over £879,000, Mr Paxton said.
He told the court: ‘The financial situation within the business was not dire, but likely mismanaged, and the expenditure reflected Mr Bush’s priorities and not those whom he was meant to be serving.
‘For all of Mr Bush’s claims about his finances, it should be borne in mind that the cost of a single cremation was around £500, and yet Mr Bush chose not to deal with those bodies entrusted to him but to operate as he chose and spend the money on himself and others.’
The victims of Robert Bush
Some of the hundreds of victims of fraudulent funeral director Robert Bush started reading their victim impact statements as his five-day sentencing hearing got under way.
Several relatives chose to read their own statements at Hull Crown Court, pausing as they became emotional.
Bush listened to the statements from the dock, looking down but showing no visible reaction.
– Norman Bridger, 94
Norman Bridger’s body was recovered from Legacy premises, in a cardboard coffin, 10 months after his death.
His family had already had a funeral for him, and his daughter, Karen King, had lockets for her and her mother containing the ashes given to her by Bush.
In a statement read in court, Ms King said she struggled with the fact that her father was still in the grey T-shirt in which he had died.
She said: ‘It just shows to me that Bush did not care for him or respect him as he promised he would.
‘My lovely dad lay in a cardboard coffin for almost 11 months. It is beyond belief.
‘I’ll never know why. It feels he was just forgotten.
‘When the police officers knocked on my door and gave me the news that dad may still be at the funeral home, the feelings I had were overwhelming.
‘My partner, David, and I broke down in tears. How could someone be so cruel? Why would he just leave him there?’
– Jonathan Butler, 73
Jonathan Butler’s body was recovered from Legacy eight months after his death.
His partner Kathryn Howard stopped several times to compose herself while reading her victim impact statement.
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.’
– Muriel Winning, 61
Muriel Winning’s body was recovered from Legacy seven months after her death.
Her son, Byron Lill, had already been given some ashes that he thought were those of his mother by Bush, and had them on his window sill.
Particular care was taken by the family to prepare Mrs Winning and dress her in her wedding dress.
Ashes believed to be those of her mother, Pauline Campbell, who died in April 2022, were also found.
Mr Lill, who became emotional while reading his statement, said: ‘Mum believed in life after death and wanted to be dressed in her wedding dress when she died, in readiness for meeting with (her husband) David again.
‘(My wife) Helen and I carried out her wishes and ensured she was dressed as she wanted…All this care was lost on Robert Bush.
‘All the hard work and tireless care we willingly gave mum was for nothing. 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.’
– Raymond Dagnall, 64
Raymond Dagnall’s body was recovered from Legacy seven months after his death.
His family had scattered what they thought were Mr Dagnall’s ashes at Bridlington Harbour, as a tribute to his work as a fisherman.
There had, in fact, been no cremation, despite Bush charging them for one.
Mr Dagnall’s sister, Christina George, sobbed as she told the court: ‘No matter what people tell me, I still blame myself and I think I probably always will.
‘Why hadn’t I taken him somewhere closer to where he lived or anywhere other than Legacy?
‘Raymond was my brother. He didn’t deserve this. I will never forgive Bush for his neglect and complete lack of respect.
‘I try and think of all the good memories I have of us growing up as children together, but I keep coming back in my mind to him laying forgotten on a rack.’
– Colin Wainman, 69
Colin Wainman’s body was recovered from Legacy six months after his death.
His family said the ashes Bush initially gave them were in a cardboard box, inside a Hobbycraft bag, and he apologised for not having any of his gift bags left.
His daughter, Vikki Mitchell, later returned the ashes to Bush so that he could separate them out.
He had done four boxes of ashes when she had only asked for two, and the bag was so heavy to carry that she had to stop several times walking home.
– Maureen Graham, 82
Maureen Graham’s body was recovered from Legacy six months after her death.
Her son, David Graham, could only afford an unattended service costing £970, after which he went to a crematorium and was presented with an ‘abnormally large urn’ that he was told contained his mother’s ashes, which he then witnessed being scattered over the Garden of Remembrance.
Her sister, Sandra Spamer’s statement said: ‘I feel angry, heartbroken and a deep sense of injustice that a man in a trusted position would do this to families for his own gain.
‘My sister wasn’t just a body, she was a loved family member. Knowing how she was treated has affected me deeply.’
– Susan Gorbutt, 78
Susan Gorbutt’s body was recovered from Legacy six months after her death.
When her husband, David Gorbutt, collected what he thought were her ashes in September 2023, he was handed a plain paper bag containing a small cardboard box with Susan’s name.
He said: ‘I hope they’re the right ones.’
Bush replied: ‘Yes, they are definitely the right ones.’
In his victim impact statement, Mr Gorbutt 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’.
‘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.’
– Shirley Wright, 86
Shirley Wright’s body was recovered from Legacy five months after her death.
When her daughter Jayne Rimmington collected the ashes in October 2023, she was surprised how heavy they were, but Bush said this was due to her ‘bone density’.
Ms Rimmington said: ‘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.
‘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.’
– Mark Hotham, 89
Mark Hotham’s body was recovered from Legacy five months after his death.
Debbie Keeting, his close friend and carer, became upset at his funeral and demanded to see inside the coffin.
She did not believe he was there because of how apparently light it was, but her family managed to calm her down and the funeral went ahead.
Nigel Hotham, Mark’s nephew, said: ‘I can’t forgive (Bush) and don’t think I ever will. One mistake is perhaps forgivable but to mistreat so many people is a huge betrayal.
‘This is not just an error of judgment.
‘It feels like a determined effort to destroy so many lives. You are supposed to trust a funeral director.’
– John Carlill, 77
John Carlill’s body was recovered from Legacy five months after his death.
His close friend John Banyard arranged for a direct cremation and £970 was paid from Mr Carlill’s estate.
Bush told Mr Banyard he could not attend the crematorium to see the coffin go from the hearse into the chapel, and that he would be ‘told off’ if he did.
Mr Banyard’s statement said: ‘All of this has made me have a distrust in people now. 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.’
– Joyce Moulton, 98
Joyce Moulton’s body was recovered five months after her death.
Her family tried contacting Bush several times after the funeral to arrange to get her ashes, but their phone calls and emails went unanswered.
They had not received her ashes by the time the police informed them what had happened.
Mrs Moulton’s son Ron Marsh said: ‘What happened next to mum is unthinkable.
‘You think you can put your faith in funeral directors, but it has knocked our trust in professionals, like doctors, undertakers and carers.
‘I question if they are all as bad as one another, but that these just haven’t been caught yet.’
-Terence Buck, 75
Terence Buck’s body was recovered from Legacy four months after his death.
Around a week after his funeral in November 2023, ashes were delivered to his daughter Sarah Gray by an unknown male employee in a personalised Liverpool Football Club burgundy box, which the family had bought.
Believing that these were her father’s ashes, she kept them at home until the police visited to tell her that his body was still at the funeral home.
Ms Gray’s statement read: ‘It’s heartbreaking to know the ashes we had cared for in our house weren’t my dad.
‘I feel for the person whose ashes they are and the family of whoever those ashes belong to as they don’t have their loved one with them either.’
-David Burton, 75
David Burton’s body was recovered from Legacy four months after his death.
When his granddaughter, Rea Burton, attended the funeral home to collect his ashes in December 2023, Bush didn’t know who she was, which offended her as he had asked her to attend at that time.
Bush said he would go and ‘dig him out’ and, after a lot of rustling in the background, he appeared with a bag.
After being told by Ms Burton that the family were having the ashes put into necklace charms and her uncle was going to have some put into ink for a tattoo, Bush responded that it was ‘a brilliant idea’.
Ms Burton said: ‘We had mistakenly placed our trust in Rob. 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.’
-Audrey Leach, 97
Audrey Leach’s body was recovered from Legacy four months after her death.
Her daughter Suzanne Leach noted white flecks amongst the grey ashes that Bush gave her, and he said they may be remnants of the photographs that had been cremated with her.
Mrs Leach’s granddaughter, Amy Leach, tearfully told the court: ‘I keep thinking, what if the initial cremation had gone ahead?
‘We would never know if we were getting a person back or if we’d been conned with a handful of gravel.
‘I know that we’re lucky that we know exactly where grandma was and exactly where she is now. Others don’t have that privilege and will never know.’
-Danny Middleton, 78
Danny Middleton’s body was recovered from Legacy four months after his death.
At his funeral in November 2023, his son Gavin Middleton described the coffin as being ‘really small’ and wondered how his father could have fitted inside.
The court heard Gavin Middleton has also died since making his victim impact statement, which was read on his behalf.
It said: ‘I’m a changed man now; I’ve lost a great deal of weight and my mental health has suffered.
‘I took such a long time off work to deal with everything that I was left financially bereft and almost lost my home as a result.’
-Tony Munro, 65
Tony Munro’s body was recovered from Legacy four months after his death.
A week before his funeral, his twin brother went to see him, and found him lying on a table on a white sheet rather than in a coffin.
Mr Munro’s daughter Jade Munro told the court: ‘It angers me that there are no regulations in the funeral business. It is so expensive to pay for a funeral.
‘It is clear that such a lucrative business should have checks and balances and I just don’t understand why there isn’t and this situation is allowed to happen.’
-Jessie Stockdale, 89
Jessie Stockdale’s body was recovered from Legacy three months after her death.
Her grandson Tristan Essex went to view her on three separate occasions and noticed that she had been placed in a different coffin on each occasion, one of which had mould on it.
Mr Essex’s statement said: ‘I am angry, and I feel like my nana was left to rot, and that her dignity was taken away.
‘I feel that there was no emotion, that no respect was shown by Robert Bush. I feel that I was completely misled by his persona and now I know that this is the opposite to the kind of person that Robert Bush really is.’
-Peter Moody, 65
Peter Moody’s body was recovered from Legacy three months after his death.
In the week before his funeral, his family went to view his body, which was laid out on a hospital trolley rather than within a coffin.
His wife Beverley Jackson told the court: ‘This wasn’t just unprofessional conduct, it was a cruel and inhumane betrayal of trust.
‘Our family trusted Legacy with something sacred. They didn’t just fail in their duty, they stole from us the dignity of mourning, the assurance that Peter was at peace and the comfort of knowing we did right by him.’
-Jean Collinson, 80
Jean Collinson’s body was recovered from Legacy three months after her death.
Her husband Michael Collinson’s statement said: ‘I felt sick that Jean had not been cremated as I thought she had and that I had in my possession a box of ashes that I thought were Jean’s but that actually weren’t.
‘How those ashes ever came to have Jeans name on them I have no idea, but I felt physically ill for months when I was informed of this.
‘I felt traumatised when I handed those ashes to the police as I had looked after them all that time and some family of the person whose ashes they actually were didn’t have them. I was disgusted to be honest.’
-Alan Gray, 78
Alan Gray’s body was recovered from Legacy three months after his death.
In February 2024, his stepdaughter Tracey-Jo Taylor contacted Bush to apologise for not collecting the ashes yet, and he told her not to worry, and that the ashes were safe with him.
That was a lie, as Mr Gray had never been cremated, the court heard.
Hilda ‘Mary’ Rhodes, 80
Mary Rhodes’ body was recovered from Legacy three months after her death.
The ashes Bush initially had delivered to her family came partly in a scatter tube with pictures of gardening equipment – things Ms Rhodes had hated.
The family also had jewellery made out of some of the ashes, which turned out to be the wrong ones.
Her daughter Sarah Hepple said: ‘For months we’ve all carried a little piece of my Mum round with us, only to then find out that what we had was a total stranger.’
– Stephen Perrins, 70
Stephen Perrins’ body was recovered from Legacy three months after his death, and was found in a cardboard coffin.
His family were said to be devastated that he had been moved from the personalised coffin they had written messages on.
-Joan Stark, 86
Joan Stark’s body was recovered from Legacy three months after her death.
Her daughter Lynne Jeffries never received the ashes after the funeral, despite chasing Legacy ‘many times’.
Ms Jeffries said: ‘I felt vulnerable, intimidated and cheated all because I had put all my trust into a man I thought would look after my mum and treat her in the dignified and loving way she should have been treated.’
-Brian Johnson, 75
Brian Johnson’s body was recovered from Legacy two months after his death.
His family organised a charity collection on the day of the funeral for Cancer Research, who never received the money.
Mr Johnson’s daughter Yvonne Johnson said: ‘We trusted in (Bush) to do as we requested and he came across like he couldn’t do enough for us.
‘He kept saying ‘bless you’ to us and seemed so kind and empathetic.
‘I recall thinking what a nice man he was and that he was in the right job. How wrong that turned out to be.’
– Graham Finn, 76
Graham Finn’s body was recovered from Legacy two months after his death.
His daughter Tracy Finn said that Bush was always busy and rushing around, and would never answer when they called.
Mr Finn’s granddaughter Mollie Finn told the court: ‘I despise Robert Bush for the pain and anguish he has caused — not only to my family but to so many others.
‘He showed no respect for the dead, no consideration for the living, and no sign of human decency.’
