Some of the families affected by the Legacy scandal are ‘disappointed’ Bush could be released after serving half his sentence
Families want the government to ‘sit up and listen’ about funeral director regulation(Image: Andrew Stenning/Daily Mirror/Reach plc)
Families of victims of Robert Bush have reacted to the 20-year prison sentence given to the rogue Legacy funeral director who kept bodies at his premises for months and handed grieving families the wrong ashes. The families have been left worried Bush will be released in as little as ten years.
High Court Judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, sentenced Bush to 20 years behind bars on Friday after he pleaded guilty to 67 charges, including preventing the lawful and decent burials of dead people, selling fraudulent funeral plans, and stealing money intended for charities.
Ron Marsh, the son of Joyce Moulton, whose body was left in Bush’s Hessle Road funeral home for six months, said he was “impressed” with the judge, who “did the best he could do under the circumstances”. But Ron says he is worried Bush will be out on the streets again in a decade.
He said: “The annoying thing is that, under the current scheme, there’s a chance he could get out in ten years and that doesn’t seem fair. The trouble is he tried to come across as apathetic and incompetent but instead had no empathy for his live clients let alone his dead clients. How he can live with himself, I really do not know.
“They never told me whether my mum’s body was on the floor – and I never want to know – but the problem is when you’ve got it in your head that some bodies were naked on the floor, you think, how could he do it? He said he had got into a situation that he couldn’t get out of but that doesn’t stop you from the basic decency of dressing them.”
Ron’s mum Joyce was discovered at the funeral home and needed to be identified by her hospital bracelet. Ron and his brother, Peter, thought their mum had been cremated six months before her body was discovered. Joyce’s body was one of more than 30 that were found in squalid conditions at the funeral home.
He said his 4ft 10 mum was “a force to be reckoned with” and was “argumentative” and “stroppy” but loved caring for her grandchildren and being needed by others. She had battled dementia in the last years of her life but was otherwise fit and healthy before she died aged 98.
Nigel Hotham’s uncle Mark Hotham was the final body to be identified. His identity was confirmed by tracing the serial number on his hearing aid, after his body had been on a shelf in Bush’s funeral parlour for several months. Nigel said he and his family believe 20 years’ imprisonment is “a good sentence” but the fact that Bush may only serve half of that has left them “disappointed”.
He said: “Initially I thought it was a good sentence of 20 years, but he could only serve 10 years and be released on licence. For the amount of bodies he’s left and the fraud he’s committed, we are disappointed that he may only serve 10 years.
“Now if you look at other offences where people get longer, it seems to minimise what happened to us. If the judge had said 20 years, and he will serve 20 years, we’d have been happy with that. To get 20 years and to only potentially serve 10 – how can he get that for leaving my uncle and leaving other bodies? It feels like a slap in the face.”
Nigel says he and other affected families would like to challenge the sentence at the Court of Appeal, believing it to be “unduly lenient”. Many affected families are sharing a petition in hope of getting legislation introduced to regulate funeral director practice to avoid malpractice in the future.
The petition calls for independent governance to oversee the sector, mandatory standards and licensing to ensure consistent care, and the creation of a Commissioner for the Dignity of the Deceased to oversee the care of the deceased.
Nigel said: “We are trying to get the Government to sit up and listen to us. We need 10,000 people to sign it. We want it to be in people’s minds. It’s alright Andy Burnham saying they are going to review it, but they need to sit up and listen.”
The Department of Health and Social Care last week vowed to begin “urgent work” to “crack down on rogue funeral operators”. The department said it “will now drive forward work alongside other government departments, including the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Law Commission, to crack down on rogue operators in the funeral sector and to protect bereaved families against the heartbreak of having their loved ones mistreated in death”.
It said it would aim to introduce regulation of the funeral sector and undertake a review of criminal law in relation to the deceased. It will consider creating new offences too, if they are needed. Health and Social Care Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “Robert Bush’s actions were utterly abhorrent, and my thoughts are with all the bereaved families in Hull who have been so badly let down.
“In the wake of this horrific case, we will now bring forward comprehensive proposals to ensure respect and dignity for the deceased in every setting, including proper regulation of the funeral sector. We are determined to drive rogue operators out of this industry, and protect other families from suffering this same heartache. Every person in every situation deserves dignity in death, and every bereaved family deserves certainty that their loved ones are being treated with care and respect.”
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