Raymond Dagnall’s sister says she will never forgive Robert Bush
Raymond Dagnall
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.
Raymond Dagnall is my brother and he was 64 years old when he died in July 2023. We had used Legacy Funeral Directors before as a family for my Mam and it had been nice so I contacted them again for Raymond. Legacy were local to us and it seemed the right place to go.
I had never organised a funeral before and I didn’t know where to start but Bush seemed so helpful and sympathetic. It was as if he couldn’t do enough for us. He even arranged for Raymond’s death certificate to be completed.
I accepted everything he told me. I trusted him. I couldn’t have been more wrong about a man. He just took advantage of me. I feel so guilty for trusting him with Raymond. Even the certificate he arranged was not correct.
It just felt like he took my money and did nothing with it. He certainly didn’t use it for the purpose for which it was intended, which was to care for Raymond and ensure that he was cremated with the dignity he deserved.
Bush would continually use the phrase “Bless you”. These words used to sound endearing, peaceful and comforting. Now they just make me feel sick and the hairs prickle on the back of my neck.
I didn’t want to go and see Raymond when he had died because I was afraid of how he would look. I wanted to remember him as he was, smiling and happy. When I found out that Raymond was just left on a rack, the guilt was just too much.
Bush didn’t care for Raymond or respect him or us as a family. He hadn’t even washed him and put him in a shroud. I wish I had known. I only work in the next street to the Legacy premises, it would have been no trouble to have taken him clothes to wear. I would have happily bought him clothes and made sure he was wearing something other than that hospital gown. It makes my heart break that I was so close to him and I couldn’t do anything for him. I didn’t know he was still there.
I feel so upset that I’ve been taken in by Robert Bush. I feel he has conned us. I trusted him. When we first had the knock at the door from the police officers, to tell us what they had found at Legacy, I was in shock.
My immediate thoughts were for the ashes we had received. I have no idea whose remains they were and I never will know. We scattered them off Bridlington Harbour as Raymond would have wanted. All I could think of was what if that person didn’t like water or being in the sea.
I really feel heartbroken for that person’s family. They would never know what had happened to their loved one.
The wait for the identification to come was so hard. I couldn’t sleep for worrying whether it was Raymond or not. My mind was all over the place. Then when I did know it was definitely Raymond, I still couldn’t sleep because of the guilt I felt. It was my fault. I took him there.
No matter what people tell me, I still blame myself and I think I probably always will. Why hadn’t I taken him somewhere closer to where he lived or anywhere other than Legacy?
Raymond was my brother. He didn’t deserve this. I will never forgive Bush for his neglect and complete lack of respect. I try and think of all the good memories I have of us growing up as children together, but I keep coming back in my mind to him laying, forgotten on a rack.
All my memories of my brother feel tainted by what Bush has done. I don’t think this is something I will ever really get over.
I wonder if Robert Bush ever thinks about the upset and the trauma that he’s caused so many people. So many people are going through hell because of him. I know it will affect me for the rest of my life.
When we had Raymond’s second funeral, I felt a relief. I knew that it was definitely him. The bereavement staff at the crematorium were brilliant. We got to play his favourite Suzi Quattro music and send him off properly.
We were given his ashes back the same day. It was such a difference to what we had experienced before. We were able to scatter him off Bridlington pier and the wind took him away as if it was meant to be. This is what should have happened so many months ago. We should never have had to go through this twice.
Robert Bush has caused trauma that will be with us forever. It’ll never go away, we just have to learn to live with it. He turned our world upside down. I really want him to know that. There can never be a good enough reason for what he has done. Why? I’ll never understand how one human being could show such little respect to another.
Christina George