During hours of statements from relatives of the deceased who were given the wrong ashes by Bush, an array of heartbreaking stories were heard in court.
One of the bereaved families said of Bush: “He came across as a really nice person but, in reality, he was pure evil. I want Robert Bush to know what suffering he has caused.”
Another described him as an “evil person”. A grieving widow said of Bush: “You are a cruel conman. You used people’s grief to fund your lifestyle.”
Another bereaved person condemned “Robert Bush’s greed and nauseating crimes”. Another said that their loss had been “reduced to a sick joke and a horror story”. Another branded Legacy “monsters”.
Mr Paxton said that a woman gave birth in May 2022 to a baby at 18 weeks but “sadly there was no heartbeat”. Bush was chosen to collect the couple’s son and take it to the funeral home.
He handed them a little blue coffin and they thought their son’s ashes from cremation were inside. They never received back some items and assumed that they had gone to the crematorium.
Their son’s remains were recovered by police from the Hessle Road premises. They were in a brown paper bag on March 8, 2024.
The images issued by Humberside Police of the loved ones involved in the Legacy Funerals case(Image: PA)
In another case, a woman suffered a miscarriage and the baby’s ashes were handed over to her in a box after a cremation. She suffered another miscarriage and decided to use Legacy again.
Bush telephoned to say that the ashes were ready for collection. They were collected but they were not the correct ashes.
Another woman discovered from a scan that there was no heartbeat on her baby at just over 17 weeks. Her son was delivered “without life” and the family contacted Legacy.
The ashes were handed over in an envelope inside a bag and they were “shocked”. The weight was twice what the baby son weighed. The ashes could not have been the correct ones.
Another woman lost her baby. Bush was contacted and cremation arrangements were made. The family was handed an urn. The woman contacted police ater hearing of a public appeal.
She was concerned about whether the ashes were the correct ones for her baby. They could not have been those of her baby. “The real ashes have never been recovered,” said Mr Paxton.