‘Darkest time of my life’: Funeral director sentenced to 20 years in prison for giving families wrong ashes

This court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook shows funeral director Robert Bush appearing at Hull Crown Court, England, for sentencing on 30 counts of preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body, and one count of theft from 12 charities, on Friday, July 27, 2026 charged with the murder of MP Ann Widdecombe. (Elizabeth Cook/PA via AP)

LONDON — A British funeral director was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday after the judge heard emotional testimony about how he gave families the wrong ashes for their cremated loved ones, improperly retained corpses for months and stole charity donations collected at memorial services.

Robert Bush, 48, was sentenced at Hull Crown Court in northeastern England after a five-day hearing in which more than 200 victims described the devastating impact of his crimes. He previously pleaded guilty to 67 charges related to crimes that took place over 12 years at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull.

Among those who spoke in court was Jasmine Beverley, whose son Sunny was stillborn on May 13, 2022. Investigators found his ashes in a brown paper bag on the floor of the funeral director’s premises more than a year after Bush handed her a little blue coffin and told her Sunny’s ashes were inside.

“When I discovered what had happened, it reopened that trauma in a way I cannot fully describe,” Beverley said, recalling the pain of losing her child.

“It felt like being pulled back into the darkest time of my life. The grief, anxiety and distress returned with such intensity that I again found myself struggling mentally and emotionally.”

About 50 people learned they had been given the wrong ashes for their loved ones when police raided the funeral home and found urns and packaging labeled with their names.

The court also heard that Bush defrauded 172 people of 562,000 pounds (US$755,000), including money from fake funeral plans. He also collected cash donations on behalf of bereaved families during memorial services but didn’t turn the money over to the designated charities.

The case came to light in March 2024 when Bush was on vacation in Arizona and asked the directors of another funeral firm to help with a body recovery while he was away.

A worker at Bush’s funeral home told the other firm’s directors “out of the blue” that bodies had been at the site “for years.”

They called the police, who discovered a “horror scene” at the funeral home, with bodies in various stages of decomposition stored on the racks of a cold storage area and one naked corpse lying on a stretcher on the floor, prosecutors said.

Danica Kirka, The Associated Press