This story contains details some might find distressing.
I’ve reported on many criminal cases before, but nothing like that of undertaker Robert Bush.
Now the case is over, we can report on what it was like to follow a story that began when whistleblowers raised concerns about Legacy Independent Funeral Directors with Humberside Police in March 2024.
Bush, the former owner of Legacy in Hull, admitted 67 offences, including fraudulent trading, denying 30 people a decent and proper burial, and giving some bereaved relatives the ashes of strangers.
The scale of Bush’s offending was extraordinary. Police identified 300 victims.
Some were families who had paid Bush for funeral plans and services.
Others were relatives left questioning whether the ashes they had received really belonged to their loved ones.
There were also the deceased, whose bodies he had been trusted to bury or cremate with dignity.
Bush’s scores of victims meant seats in courtroom four at Hull Crown Court for his five-day sentencing were in high demand.
Every day, diligent ushers stood like bouncers at the court’s heavy, soundproof doors. They ensured families were given priority to see the man who wronged their loved ones face justice.
Court staff escorted them in with boxes of tissues, paper cups of water and a kind hand on their arms. Some were wiping away tears before they even walked into the room.
Fearful of what they were about to hear.
Their worries were not misplaced. The details of Bush’s crimes were harrowing.
Among them, discarding stillborn premature baby Sunny Beverley-Conlin on the floor in a paper bag, and abandoning one victim naked on the floor to “let nature take its course”.
They are descriptions one grieving mother said “will never leave me”.