Maxine Penrose says she feels like she is in limbo, not knowing what happened to her bother Paul’s ashes
Flowers left outside Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hessle Road, Hull, on Tuesday March 12 2024.(Image: Donna Clifford / Hull Live)
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 have really struggled since losing Paul, to lose a brother at the age of 58 and so unexpectedly has been so hard. When all of this happened with Legacy it has made the grieving process worse.
I feel lost, I am a different person than I used to be. Organising my brother’s funeral was the last thing I was able to do for him and because of what Robert Bush did, I feel robbed of that.
My children also had a ring made for me with my dad and Paul’s ashes. We now know that my dad is with an unknown person’s ashes. This is heartbreaking.
I feel like I am left in limbo, not knowing what happened to Paul’s ashes, who has been given them and where are they now. I can’t stop thinking about how Paul was left there for 73 days after his funeral. I have been thinking how was Paul stored. Was he there when we collected the ashes? How could Rob hand the ashes over knowing that Paul was still there and not cremated?
I don’t know how Rob could present the way he did to people knowing what he was doing. He came across as a really nice person but, he is pure evil.
I would happily go to court and let Rob see how this has impacted me, and I am one of many that is in this situation. I want Rob to know what suffering he has caused, and I want him to suffer like we are. I think he must be carrying on with his life as normal when I can’t.
Maxine Penrose