Former funeral director who gave bereaved families wrong ashes and left bodies decomposing jailed 20 years

Saturday, August 1, 2026 - A former funeral director Robert Bush, who gave bereaved families the wrong ashes and left the bodies of 35 people, including a stillborn baby, decomposing, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

Bush, 48, from Otley, West Yorkshire, in the UK, was sentenced today, July 31, at Hull Crown Court. 

Judge Mr Justice Hilliard told the sentencing hearing he has never "known offences affect so many people and so many people so deeply". 

As he told the court Bush had shown regret and that it seemed genuine, many of the victims' families shook their heads. One woman broke down in tears. 

Outside court, Karen Dry, whose parents' funerals were organised by Bush, called for a public inquiry into how his crimes were possible. 

She said: "We all deserve dignity in de@th and this was totally denied to our loved ones." 

Bush was sentenced for 67 offences spanning 12 years and affecting hundreds of victims at his business, Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, in Hull. 

His victims included the mum of a stillborn baby boy who discovered that her child's remains had been left on a floor for two years while she was given ash she thought was her cremated child. 

Detectives believe he kept a stockpile of mixed-up ashes belonging to several people which he could dip into whenever he was chased by a bereaved family for their loved one’s remains. 

Four mothers said they will never recover from being told the ashes they had kept in an urn or had made into jewellery were not those of their babies – and in one case were not even human. 

The judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, echoed Bush’s own barrister, who told the court he had caused "anguish and pain on a scale beyond comprehension". 

He said: "The awful truth is that anyone whose loved one went through Legacy at any time when it was operating can now have no confidence as to how they were treated, or as to whose ashes they have, unless they were one of the 30 bodies recovered in March." 

The senior judge said he had "no doubt that the defendant behaved in such a deceitful way because of financial greed". 

"He must unfortunately have a heartless side to him too, which enabled him to treat the living and the de@d in the way that he did," he said. 

"The defendant was so preoccupied with his own enrichment that he behaved in a shocking and disgraceful way towards the deceased entrusted to his care, and his behaviour towards their living relatives was characterised by dishonesty, deception and heartlessness. 

"If he could reuse a coffin that someone else had already paid for, he would do so. If it was cheaper not to keep the deceased in refrigerated conditions, he would do that too. 

"Imagine the feelings of someone who had some of the ashes they were given made into a trinket or something to wear as a comfort and a remembrance of a departed relative, only to find that they had been given the ashes of a completely different person. 

"Imagine the feelings of parents on discovering that they had not been given their baby’s ashes but an unknown person’s ashes – or something else altogether – and now they have nothing. 

"These are examples of the harms the defendant has done." 

Mr Justice Hilliard said there had been no checks or oversight "at all" on the condition deceased were kept in at Legacy. 

He added: "A single visit might have been enough to bring some of what he was doing to a halt. 

"Even the prospect of a visit might have meant that some of what he was doing never started in the first place." 

Prime Minister Andy Burnham offered his sympathies to the families of Bush’s victims and backed calls for the regulation of funeral homes and mortuaries. 

Speaking on a visit to Sheffield, he said: "I feel for the families and I know it’ll be a difficult day for them with these matters in court again. I was truly horrified when I heard what had happened. Appalling for any family to go through that. This needs a proper response in terms of the regulation needed, to make sure no family goes through that again. 

"People, I think, would assume that the highest standards apply to this area and we’ve got to make sure that they do apply and that there can’t be any repeat of what we’ve seen." 

The "horror scene" of his premises at Hull-based Legacy was discovered in March 2024 when he was on holiday. 

When police were tipped off that something criminal may be going on at the business, they found bodies in varying states of decomposition, including one of a stillborn baby. 

The court heard he kept bodies for months after they should have been cremated, gave out the wrong ashes, took money for funeral plans without actually making any of the arrangements and even pocketed charity donations collected at services.