Mary Rhodes was an adored mum, described as ‘the glue that held her family together’
Mary Rhodes
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.
I am the daughter of Hilda Mary Rhodes but my Mum didn’t like to be called Hilda as that was her mam’s name, so everyone called her Mary. Mary is what she was known as throughout her life and she was the glue that held our family together.
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. I had trusted in (Robert) Bush that my mum would be in safe hands but instead there was an extreme lack of dignity and respect, the opposite of what my Mum so deserved. I can still recall the distressing personal questions that the police had to ask me in order to help them formally identify my Mum.
Bush has stolen precious memories that I had of my Mum. He made me a victim and has turned my world upside down. I have hatred for Bush.
Mum liked the simple things in life except for her ‘treats’ that she used to buy from Marks and Spencer. One thing my Mum never wavered from though was what she wanted when she passed away. She was persistent about this and it was one of the last things I could do for her.
Bush has destroyed what my family and I had initially done for my Mum with the first funeral and the scattering of ashes, and I hate him for taking that. To have to do this all over again a second time was devastating. The second funeral wasn’t right, it just felt all wrong.
Bush has tarnished my Mum’s memories. We trusted in Legacy and in him to honour our requests and wishes. How dare he take this from my Mum and from us. We left our Wife, Mum, Mum In Law and Nan in his care and he discarded her like a piece of rubbish; like she was nothing. She was everything to us.
Everyone kept telling me that Mum’s soul has moved on and left her body, but Mum’s body was left there without us knowing for months, and with strangers. Mum hated meeting new people and was a really private person. She also hated being cold so it’s unbearable knowing that she’d been left like that.
I’d had jewellery made with what I thought were my Mum’s ashes, which were the ones first given to me by Legacy. 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.
When I discovered what had happened at Legacy I had to replace the items of jewellery to put my Mum’s ashes in. After discovering what Bush had done and that my mum hadn’t been cremated by Legacy, I had to go out shopping to purchase an outfit that my Mum could be dressed in for her actual cremation, which felt so surreal. I had already chosen the outfit for my Mum the first time, and then found myself in a situation where I was doing this all over again. This is something that nobody should ever have to do and which I found horrific.
There has been much uncertainty during this horrific journey. The police investigation has been lengthy, and there is still the ongoing impact on mine and my family’s lives. Bush has taken away anecdotes that my family and I would have had about my Mum, and he has prevented conversations taking place that would be about fond memories of Mum.
I miss my Mum so very much but what has happened at Legacy has ripped a great big hole in our hearts. 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.
Sarah Jane Hepple