"46 Corpses Discovered Infested with Maggots After 'Vile' Funeral Directors Abandon Them in Warm Mortuary"

TWO funeral directors have been jailed after bodies were found crawling with maggots when 46 corpses were left to rot in a warm mortuary.

Richard Elkin, 49, and Hayley Bell, 42, failed to buy a coffin for one elderly man and left him decomposing for 36 days.

Richard Elkin and Hayley Bell left bodies to rot in their funeral homeCredit: PA Bell has now been jailed for four yearsCredit: PA Elkin was also locked upCredit: PA

His family believed a cremation had already taken place – only to learn his body was still at Elkin and Bell Funerals in Gosport, .

Another body was found an unrefrigerated room where water was leaking through the ceiling.

Some of the victims were covered in maggots, shedding skin and lying in their own fluids.

Horrific footage showed walking through the squalid funeral home where officers found the decomposing bodies.

The case has prompted renewed calls for urgent regulation of the funeral sector, including from bereaved families, police bosses and an industry body.

Elkin and Bell have now been jailed for four years each for a string of offences including preventing the decent burial of a body.

Portsmouth Crown heard statements from 13 family members of loved ones who were in the care of the disgraced funeral directors.

One family were “incredulous” when told by police their relative had not been cremated after they placed a wreath at Portchester Crematorium in the “mistaken belief his body had been cremated there.

The son of the one of the victims told how he was forced to carry his mum’s icy coffin after she was frozen due to how much of a bad condition she was in.

He said: “I witnessed my mother’s body in a state of decomposition I saw it with my own eyes and smelt it in the air.

“It is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

“This has meant that I have never and doubt I will ever grieve the loss of my mother.”

A mum told the court Bell was a long-time trusted friend of 23 years and went to her to look after her son, who died 11 minutes after he was born.

She said it felt wrong in her gut that his casket was sealed shut so she couldn’t hold her baby one last time.

The mum added: “A mother’s last right to hold her baby was forever taken away. Not to save me but to save him from the mistreatment he had received.

“The fact you both have refused to speak shouts volumes and will always leave me and Sam wondering what happened to him.

“While I carry a new deeper grief having to carry on every day for my family, it haunts me the unknowns all the time.”

“I’m so disappointed I ever knew you.”

The trial heard the funeral directors was investigated by the Gosport Environmental Health Partnership in August 2021.

It was issued with improvement notices, which the defendants responded to by buying a refrigeration unit on that was unsuitable because of the size of the room.

The bodies of two elderly men were later found by High Court enforcement agents, who had been tasked with repossessing the premises because of unpaid rent and debts.

One – an 87-year-old man – “showed obvious signs of decomposition” in a mortuary room that was not refrigerated and water was coming in through a leak in the roof.

The court heard the room recorded a temperature of 11.48C, well above the recommended 4C for storing bodies after 48 hours.

Between June 2022 and December 2023, Elkin and Bell kept 46 bodies in an unrefrigerated room – with many left there for more than 30 days.

Following a trial, the pair were convicted of intentionally causing a public nuisance, preventing lawful burial, and carrying on business with intent to defraud creditors.

Elkin was additionally convicted of making and using a false instrument and possessing pepper spray.

As well as a jail term, they were today both disqualified from acting as directors for any company for a period of seven years.

Andrew Eddy, of the , said: “Today’s sentence marks an important moment — one of the first times funeral directors have been held criminally accountable for denying families a lawful and dignified burial.

“Richard Elkin and Hayley Bell abused their position of trust, stored bodies in degrading conditions, lied to grieving relatives, and continued trading when they knew they could not meet even basic obligations.

“Their actions were deliberate and caused deep emotional harm to dozens of families.

“They robbed many of their one chance to say goodbye with dignity. The sentence today reflects the seriousness of that betrayal.”

The funeral directors failed to give people a proper goodbyeCredit: PA Bodies were stored in a leaking roomCredit: Solent Elkin and Bell were slammed by the families of their victimsCredit: Solent