‘Jimmy’ Porter had told his children that he didn’t want an expensive funeral, he just wanted them to celebrate his life
Herbert ‘Jimmy’ Porter
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.
My dad is Herbert James Porter, who his friends knew as Jim or Jimmy. Dad died on Monday 15th January 2024. Dad told me and my brother and sister that he didn’t want a fancy or expensive funeral. He just wanted us to celebrate his life.
Legacy Independent Funeral Directors were a local firm and offered a reasonably priced service. It seemed a good choice for us. How wrong we were.
I had never arranged a funeral before. I accepted what I was being told. Mum was ill at the time and I was torn between arranging the funeral for Dad and taking care of her. I feel now that my vulnerability was taken advantage of.
Dad’s funeral service was on 2nd February 2024 and Robert Bush assured us that Dad would be taken for cremation later that day or early the next. This was clearly a lie. I now don’t believe Bush had any intention of taking him anywhere.
Dad gave us the gift of a good life. This was our chance to repay that gift. This was the last thing I could do for him. I trusted Robert Bush to help us fulfil this.
His office was full of thank you cards. I even considered sending him a card myself. I feel deceived by him. It was all a sham. When the police told me there was a possibility that Dad was still at Legacy on 6th March 2024, I was devastated.
I work nearby and pass it almost every day. The thought of what was happening there is horrific and so difficult to fully understand. The coffin was all I could think about. The constant feelings of doubt. Was it really Dad in there?
Deep down I think I always knew it was Dad in there, but I still felt that doubt. In a strange way, I was glad it was Dad. I would have always wondered what had happened to Dad if it hadn’t have been him.
What has happened to Dad is just a constant weight to carry around. A pit in the bottom of my stomach. I imagined the horror of Dad just left there, lying alone like he never mattered. The very reason I had arranged the funeral so quickly after he died was because I didn’t want him just left alone.
Dad’s second funeral was surreal. Having one funeral for a parent is hard enough but having to go through it a second time was more than difficult. Who ever has two funerals?
I keep questioning if Dad was even in the coffin we sat around at the first funeral. This will haunt me forever. It feels that I have not yet got off the rollercoaster of grief. I feel like I am constantly reliving everything and there isn’t a day that goes by when it isn’t on my mind.
What Robert Bush has done has affected so many people. It feels that everywhere there is someone touched by his actions. I find myself thinking about other people dealing with the trauma and how people find the strength to get through every day. I just wonder how they feel and cope.
I also think about how Bush’s parents must be feeling. The shame and how they cope with what their son has done. How can you understand something that just doesn’t make any sense? We will never know why or understand how anyone could do such a thing. Everyone makes mistakes but this is so much more than a mistake.
I felt so overwhelmed when I heard all the charges and began to understand the extent of what has happened. I felt a relief that Bush would now have to answer to what he had done to Dad and how he had treated him with so little respect.
My Mum is elderly, and I worry about what I will do when it comes to arranging her funeral. How can I ever trust that it will be done properly and she will be treated with dignity after everything I have experienced with Dad? I should be able to trust a funeral director but now I’m not sure if I ever will.
Tina Thames