Relatives of Legacy victims no longer wish to visit grave because the ‘comfort and peace once attached to it no longer exist’
Police outside the Hessle Road branch of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull.(Image: PA Wire/PA Images)
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.
This statement is made to express the profound emotional distress, loss of trust, and lasting impact caused by the malpractice and handling of my mother’s and my uncle David’s ashes. I still have my uncle David’s ashes and I’m now unsure what to do as I can never be certain they are his or might be someone else’s loved one.
It just makes me question whether the ashes I have are that of my uncle David. I know that they can never be tested for DNA so we, as a family, will never have that certainty of their true identity.
The anguish caused by Robert Bush is indescribable. What should have been a sacred and dignified process has instead become a source of deep pain, anger, and emotional suffering for myself and my family. The actions and failures surrounding the care and respect of my loved ones’ ashes have shattered the peace and sanctity.
The grave in which my mother was interned was, before this heinous act, a place of comfort, remembrance, and connection. My father and grandparents rest there, and it held enormous emotional importance to me, my sisters and our families. It was never simply a burial place – it was our sanctuary. That sanctuary has now been violated beyond repair.
I now carry overwhelming guilt knowing that I could have probably placed someone else in that grave alongside my father and grandparents, someone whose memory and resting place may have been intending elsewhere with their own loved ones.
The upset and guilt I feel is beyond words. My solace is they have and are treated with the dignity and respect but will always remain a question. Who are they?
The disgraceful mishandling of my mother’s ashes has robbed us of irreplaceable memories and opportunities. Ashes that were meant to be preserved for keepsakes, remembrance items. This uncertainty will be a legacy for future generations.
Something deeply personal and sacred has been taken from us permanently. There is no remedy for that loss. This situation has not only affected me emotionally but has impacted the entire family. My children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren no longer wish to visit the grave because the comfort and peace once attached to it no longer exist. Instead of being a place where our family could gather to honour loved ones, it has become associated with distress, mistrust, and heartbreak.
I also need to express how deeply upset and disturbed I am by what has happened to the collection money from both my uncle’s and my mum’s funerals. Bush’s action on this has left me feeling appalled that this would happen.
I have feelings of a mixture of anger, disbelief, and profound disappointment. These collections were not casual donations – they were part of their last wishes, charities they cared about, supported regularly and spoke about during their lives. My mum had a lifelong love for animals and wanted her funeral collection to support a Hull Dogs Trust. This theft from the dog’s charity she cherished has been incredibly painful. It is a violation not only of her memory but of the trust placed in the person responsible. I feel embarrassed and guilty they have not received the intended funds.
To take money meant for a charity, and to do so in the context of someone’s passing, is something I find deeply disrespectful and morally unacceptable. Since finding out it has caused me significant distress, and I do struggle to understand how anyone could act in such a way.
The situation has left me feeling disgusted that such behaviour could occur at a time when families are vulnerable and simply trying to honour their loved ones’ wishes. The emotional impact on myself personally has been severe. It has affected my ability to trust those working within a profession that is supposed to provide care, dignity, and compassion during the most vulnerable times in people’s lives.
I feel I can no longer place trust in a service profession that should uphold the highest standards of respect for the deceased and their families. That trust has been completely destroyed. I have become paranoid thinking this will happen again.
I now live with feelings of anxiety, sadness, anger, and betrayal. The peace I once had surrounding my loved ones’ resting place has been stolen from me. What should have brought comfort in grief has instead prolonged it, I still cry.
No family should ever have to question whether their loved ones were treated with dignity. No family should have to carry the emotional burden of knowing that the final wishes and resting place of those they loved were mishandled.
The damage caused cannot simply be measured practically – it is emotional, generational, and permanent. I personally cannot forgive Robert Bush and will never forget.
Karen Jones
As a direct result of Robert Bush’s actions, I have been left with profound and lasting harm. I am no longer able to feel any sense of peace regarding my mother’s care she received whilst with him and feel she has been robbed of her final resting place.
What should be a place of comfort – where my mum should rest alongside my father and grandparents – has instead become a source of deep distress, uncertainty and ongoing anxiety. Robert Bush has stolen my trust, faith, and peace of mind, something I feel I will never fully recover from.
I live with the constant fear and belief that our family grave has been violated, and that I may have unknowingly interred the remains of someone who is not my mother. This thought alone has caused immense emotional trauma, leaving me feeling that I have unintentionally disrespected both my mum and my entire family. I also feel guilt towards whoever’s loved ones I have interred.The knowledge that my mum could be anywhere breaks my heart.
This has fundamentally altered my grieving process. I am no longer able to visit the grave for comfort or connection, birthdays, anniversaries for any of my relatives who rest there, as it no longer feels like a place of peace. Instead, it represents uncertainty, guilt, and a sense of betrayal.
The emotional impact is ongoing, with persistent feelings that I made the wrong decisions, despite acting entirely in good faith and reliance on professional guidance.I have also been deprived of the ability to honour my mum in the ways I had intended. I kept some of the ashes with the plan to have a piece of jewellery made for myself and other family members allowing her to remain close to us, Bush’s actions have also betrayed that trust, this is beyond negligence – it is a disgrace.
It has broken my family’s hearts knowing that the ashes we kept as a precious keepsake may not belong to our beloved Mum, their Nanna and Grandnana. What was meant to bring comfort, and continued connection has instead become another traumatic reminder of what has been taken from us.
Further adding to this distress is the discovery that we are in possession of ashes we have believed to belong to my uncle David.As a result of Bush’s dishonest conduct, these ashes now remain at home with us without a final resting place, as I am paralysed by the fear of making another irreversible decision that might be a mistake.
This emotional impact has been extended beyond my mother to another member of our family. Additionally, funds that were left in my mother’s memory for her favourite charity were taken by Robert Bush for his own personal use, with no regard for her wishes or those of our family.
This has caused significant distress and anger, as it represents not only a financial loss but a direct violation of my mother’s legacy.What was intended to honour her life and values has instead been replaced by the sense of betrayal and disrespect.
The impact of all these events is far-reaching and ongoing. I feel a deep internal sense of guilt, loss of trust. I am left without closure, without certainty, and without the peace that every family should have when laying a loved one to rest.
Instead, what Bush’s actions have left me with is deep anger, feelings of being cheated and robbed, but also the uncomfortable feeling of guilt, for feeling envious of all the families of loved ones who were correctly returned to them. I feel deep shame in admitting I feel this way, especially knowing how the alternate feels.
Not having the knowledge you’ve laid your loved one to rest, an action which should bring comfort and closure at the most vulnerable time has instead left myself and my family with never ending pain and lifelong trauma.My greatest wish is to restore dignity, certainty, and respect – both for my mum and for others who may have been affected. However, the emotional damage caused by this experience is something I continue to struggle to live with every day.
Michelle Jones