The sheer horror of Britain’s worst funeral home scandal can finally be laid bare after its callous owner admitted leaving 30 bodies to rot as he took money from their loved ones.
Robert Bush, 47, cruelly duped at least 200 families who turned to his parlour in Hull after being bereaved.
In a sickening betrayal he stockpiled bodies while dishonestly pocketing thousands of pounds in cremation fees paid by their unwitting relatives as part of funeral plans.
The now-disgraced funeral director covered his tracks by sending them what they believed were their ashes – including presenting four women with ashes he falsely claimed were those of their unborn children.
Karen Dry, whose parents were cremated by Bush, told the Daily Mail: ‘There are always going to be questions now: have we got the right ashes or not?
‘Of Bush, she added: ‘He is a monster. Frankenstein does not cut it really – he is a proper monster.’
There was horror and revulsion in March 2024 when Humberside Police announced that they had recovered 35 bodies as well as a quantity of human ashes from Legacy Independent Funeral Directors.
Over 2,000 people contacted a dedicated hotline, with horror stories including coffins covered in mould or spattered with blood.
In October last year Bush admitted giving ashes to their bereaved families and falsely claiming their loved ones had been cremated.
But relatives gasped in horror as he denied 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial in relation to the bodies found at his parlour.
Robert Bush arriving at Hull Crown Court this morning where he was set to enter pleas to a raft of offences in relation to his funeral parlour
Bush also admitted theft from 12 charities including the Salvation Army and Macmillan Cancer Support
Humberside Police launched an investigation into Legacy Independent Funeral Directors across three premises in Hull and East Yorkshire in March last year
Karen Dry’s parents, Betty and Allan Griffin, who died in 2019 and 2016, were sent to Bush’s funeral parlour. Mrs Dry has described Bush as ‘Frankenstein’
A trial was due to take place later this year, however at a hearing today at Hull Crown Court he entered guilty pleas on all the remaining counts.
It took the clerk of the court almost 10 minutes just to read out the charges with Bush, wearing a dark suit and tie and holding a black cap in his hand, quietly replying ‘guilty’ to each count.
He also admitted stealing g to charities including Macmillan Cancer Support, Dogs Trust and Help For Heroes between 2017 and 2024.
Bush had previously pleaded guilty to defrauding women who lost their babies during pregnancy by dishonestly telling them cremations had been held.
He also admitted one count of fraudulent trading between 2012 and 2023 in relation to selling funeral plans to 172 people over a 12-year period.
According to the charge he marketed funeral plans in which he claimed the funds would be kept by financial institutions, when in reality he kept the money for his own purposes.
Families gathered at court today expressed relief that Bush had finally admitted his guilt in full – but were left open-mouthed when it emerged he could leave court on bail before he is sentenced in the summer.
His barrister, Richard Wright KC, said Bush ‘understands there is only one form of sentence in this case – a custodial sentence.’
There are fears that the scandal could be much worse as the charges only relate to a small time period between 2023 and 2024, but he spent 15 years as a funeral director.
Mrs Dry, whose parents Allan and Betty Griffin were both dealt with by Legacy after their deaths in 2016 and 2019, said: ‘Nobody has got any idea if the remains they have got are of the family member who was cremated.
‘We scattered my mum’s ashes in a rosebush. I don’t even know if that was her remains. We have no real idea when the criminality started.
‘This is the last thing you need on your mind if you lose your parents or other loved ones.’
Heartbreakingly, police have said it is impossible to obtain a DNA match from ashes returned to loved-ones, meaning customers may never know if they genuinely received their remains.
After police launched their investigation, distraught families spoke in disbelief of the unfolding ‘horror film’.
They described the overwhelming smell of decomposing bodies at the firm’s Hessle Road site, some ‘dumped’ in bloodied, mouldy caskets.
Branding the unfolding scandal ‘a truly horrific incident’, police chiefs opened a hotline which would be inundated with more than 2,000 calls from concerned relatives.’
The horrific betrayal of grieving families sparked renewed calls for regulation of the funeral industry.
It comes just weeks after a pair of ‘evil and vile’ funeral directors from Hampshire who left 46 bodies to decompose in a warm mortuary for over a month were jailed for four years.
The victims whose bodies Bush stockpiled have been named as: Norman Bridger, Muriel Winning, Raymond Dagnall, Colin Wainman, Maureen Graham, Susan Gorbutt, Shirley Wright, Mark Hotham, John Carlill, Joyce Moulton, Terence Buck, David Burton, Audrey Leach, Danny Middleton, Tony Munro, Jessie Stockdale, Peter Moody, Jean Collinson, Alan Gray, Hilda Mary Rhodes, Stephen Perrins, Joan Stark, Brian Johnson, Graham Finn, Terence White, Susan Stone, Herbert James Porter, Peter Brown, Jonathan Butler and Julie Webb.
He will be sentenced later this year, with Humberside Police expected to release more details of his crimes later today.
Peter Welburn’s wife of 50 years, Shirley, died in November 2023. He believed she was cremated in December of that year and took her ashes home ‘for Christmas.’
However, it later emerged she was not actually cremated until January so the ashes were not his wife.
The retired trawlerman said the ashes had been arranged around the Christmas tree so Mrs Welburn could be ‘close to her grandchildren.’
‘I feel like killing him [Bush],’ he said. ‘That’s what I feel like. He has been walking free for a last couple of years.
‘Someone must know what happened to her [Mrs Welburn].
‘They have just lied all the time. I should have realised at the time. I just wanted the ashes for the grandbairns.’
Susan Stone, 78, (pictured) is among those whose bodies were recovered from Legacy’s funeral parlour after being ‘dumped’ following her funeral
Relatives of grandmother Jessie Stockdale (pictured) were given what they believed were her ashes – when in reality her body was still languishing at the Hull parlour
The Hessle Road branch of the Legacy Independent Funeral Directors. Police revealed that more than 2,000 people called a hotline with concerns
Speaking when the scandal was first exposed last year, the family of victim Susan Stone told of their horror at how the body of the much-loved 78-year-old grandmother had been left to decompose.
Her son Martin Stone, 52, told the Mail he was concerned that the coffin appeared to be ‘second hand’ and ‘dented’ with a name plaque for his mother that was not properly attached.
‘I thought it wasn’t right at the time,’ he said. ‘We were told to come and collect the ashes a week or two later but we hadn’t done it.
‘Her body had been there for seven weeks. It had just been dumped there and wasn’t even in a freezer.’
The family of victim Jessie Stockdale told how they had taken home what they thought was her ashes and placed it over the fireplace following her funeral.
Grandson Tristan Essex, 24, later told BBC Radio 4’s File On 4 programme that his heart ‘dropped into my stomach’ when he called the helpline and was told her body had in fact been stockpiled at the parlour.
He also recalled visiting Legacy and being shocked by what he called ‘such an unpleasant smell’, though assumed it was normal for such places.
‘He’d made no efforts at making her presentable – just seeing how her hair’s just wet, her face didn’t look the same, she looked so uncomfortable,’ he said.
‘Her head just tilted forward, her fingers had gone black, the entire coffin was just engulfed in a black thick mould.
‘Her coffin looked as if it had been submerged in water and it had actually soaked up the moisture.’
He described how the coffin’s ‘frills’ showed ‘blood just splayed, clearly for everyone to see’, adding: ‘She just looked poorly treated. I just left – I was speechless.’
On Legacy’s website, where funeral packages were on offer ranging from £970 to £4,999, Bush was described as a ‘highly trained funeral director, with many years of experience, holding industry recognised qualifications’.
The success of the business – with two branches in Hull and one in nearby Beverley – allowed the family to afford a big detached house in a nearby suburb.
But families who had paid thousands of pounds for coffins and cremation fees have said they never received any proof that caskets were actually cremated – and often not did not even get the ashes back.
Some were suspicious because their services were held at the Hessle Road parlour, not at the crematorium.
During the service they were shown an unopened casket and told their loved one was inside, raising concerns over whether it was in fact empty and whether the supposed cremations ever actually took place.
Some later received ashes but complained they often had to pester Mr Bush for them.
Police cordoned off all three Legacy branches – two in Hull and one in nearby Beverley – after a report of concerns about the ‘storage and management processes relating to care of the deceased’.
