Mark Hotham was an adored uncle
Mark Hotham
On Friday, July 31 2026, Hull funeral director Robert Bush was jailed for 20 years.
The 48-year-old left bodies to decompose at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors’ premises in the city, gave bereaved families the ashes of other people and stole money donated from collections at funerals.The “horror” and revulsion felt by the families who had lost loved ones was revealed at Hull Crown Court during a series of powerful and harrowing victim statements during the first four days of the five-day sentencing hearing.
Over the coming weeks, we will be publishing those statements – from families who had cruelly been taken advantage of when they were at their most vulnerable. Their stories need to be told, and we will ensure that they are, for as long as it takes.
Mark Hotham is my uncle and he was 87 years old when he died in September 2023. Towards the end of Uncle Mark’s life, my sister Zoe and I were caring for my seriously ill father.
We were going through a tough time with Dad and we knew that Uncle Mark was safe and was being well looked after. We were struggling and when Mark died, we didn’t attend his funeral.
We didn’t get that chance to say goodbye. We knew that the funeral was taking place at a funeral director’s on Hessle Road. Dad died in December 2023 and life was difficult coming to terms with losing Dad so soon after Uncle Mark.
I heard about the investigation at Legacy funeral directors via the media and it was a topic of conversation at work as the circumstances were both unusual and horrific. I had a feeling that Mark may be there but tried to tell myself he couldn’t be due to the time that had passed.
When we were told by officers that they believed that Uncle Mark was one of the bodies found at Legacy, my world just fell apart. I felt sick. How could someone do that to someone so loved. I felt anger. My mouth went dry. I was in shock.
Mark was such a lovely, sweet man. He was always so kind and treated Zoe and me like his own children. He was born and bred on Strickland Street in Hull so it had seemed right to choose that area for his funeral. Now it couldn’t feel more wrong.
Uncle Mark deserved the utmost respect and dignity, but his treatment felt far below how he should have been treated. He should have been treated with compassion and respect but he was left in a body bag, on a shelf, to rot. Nobody deserves to be treated like that.
He was our uncle, our family. It breaks our hearts. Had we have known that Mark was still at Legacy for all that time, we would never have allowed it. We would have stepped in. We were never afforded that opportunity. I feel so guilty. What human being would allow another human being to be left like that?
Mark had a huge impact on our lives. We never had the opportunity to even see him, or identify him. We could only see his property and imagine him wearing it. This hurts.
We had to wait longer than anyone else for Mark to be formally identified which is no one’s fault, but it just prolonged the agony for us. We could see that other families were able to lay their loved ones to rest but Mark still lay alone in the mortuary.
We are grateful to have been able to finally give Uncle Mark a proper funeral. To have an element of closure for him.
Although we have been able to have Mark’s ashes back and know that they are his remains, it doesn’t feel any easier. It must be so difficult for those who don’t have ashes or the certainty that those they have are truly the remains of their loved one.
Mark was such a caring man who lived a simple life and never hurt anyone. He was proud of his Hessle Road roots. He was a sweet man with a great sense of humour. Uncle Mark was just left when he should have been respected. I feel so angry.
I wonder if the defendant would leave his mum or dad in such a state? How would he feel if his own parents were left to decompose on a shelf? Why was it acceptable for him to do this to Uncle Mark? Left to rot and decompose. Is it because he isn’t personally connected? Does this make it OK?
Bush had a responsibility and trust to look after someone so precious and he let us down. We were already grieving for Dad and this revelation has destroyed us. I am so angry that such a sweet man could be just left. I can’t forgive him 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 judgement. It feels like a determined effort to destroy so many lives.
You are supposed to trust a funeral director. I feel no compassion for him. I don’t care for him. I don’t feel sorry for him. I despise him for what he’s put our family through.
The shock is so difficult to process. I feel cheated. I feel a huge guilt that Mark was left until last and was left alone. Bush was entrusted to look after Uncle Mark and keep him safe. He failed in his duty to protect him. It’s just so difficult to even think of moving on.
Nigel Hotham
I am the devoted carer of Mark Hotham. He is a man I loved deeply and although not related through blood, I treated him as my grandad as he treated me as his granddaughter. He was my best friend, and we were incredibly close.
For the last 20 years of his life, I was his main carer. I supported him day in, day out, with love, dignity, and complete devotion. He was an incredibly honest, hard-working, and proud man who lived with quiet strength and decency. It was both my duty and my honour to care for him.
When he passed away at the age of 87, I was determined to fulfil all of his wishes for his funeral with respect and care. I entrusted his arrangements to Legacy Funeral Directors, Hull, believing they would handle everything professionally and compassionately. But what unfolded has left me traumatised.
On the day of his funeral, I began to notice that things didn’t feel right. I couldn’t explain it at the time – but I knew something was off.Later, the unthinkable truth came to light: his body had not been laid to rest as we were told. He had not been cremated. He had not been treated with the dignity he deserved. Instead, his decomposing body was later identified through DNA.
No words can express how it feels to find out that someone you love so deeply was treated this way after death. I feel a terrible sense of guilt, as though I failed him – despite doing everything I could to honour his wishes. The thought that he has still not been properly laid to rest haunts me. I feel like I can’t grieve properly. My life has been on hold ever since.
I cared for the ashes that were given to me. I felt like he was still with me and it kept me going. All the time my grandad was rotting in that place. It just makes me feel sick.
I have always been so protective over Mark, as if he was one of my children, but I couldn’t protect him from Robert Bush.
I feel sickened that my grandad – who deserved so much better – was subjected to such neglect. Mark was not just a number or a name on a file. He was a kind, dignified man. He had a life, a family, and people who loved him.
I speak today for him, and for the deep pain this has caused me and my family. I sincerely hope that through this statement, the court understands the depth of the emotional harm and devastation this has caused. I will carry this heartbreak for the rest of my life.
Debbie Keeting