THIS is the grim moment cops raided a funeral home and uncovered decomposing bodies, bags of human ashes and grieving families’ items dumped on the floor.
bodycam footage shows officers picking through cluttered rooms at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull after concerns were raised about corpses being kept for years.
The inside of of the funeral directors was described as a ‘horror scene’
Cops enter a chapel in the funeral directors
The video captures the moment officers discovered what prosecutors later described as a “horror scene”.
More than 100 bags and boxes of ashes can be seen stacked around, with families’ belongings strewn across floors and worktops.
One officer shines her torch into dimly lit side rooms packed with rubbish.
“It’s strange, innit?” she remarks, and at one point an officer says: “There’s, like, urns… where you go pick up…”
More than 100 bags and boxes of ashes can be seen stacked around Credit: Humberside Police
Ashes, bagged up by police, were found at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull Credit: Humberside Police
Boxes of ashes piled against walls and the workshop where Bush made coffins from cheap wood.
Officers uncovered more than 30 decomposing bodies that funeral director Robert Bush falsely claimed had been cremated.
The bodies were found inside a cold storage room at the Hull funeral home after police were called to the Hessle Road site in March 2024.
Images released by cops reveal and that prosecutors say Bush bought using money taken from devastated customers.
Police also released footage showing Bush arguing with detectives after he was arrested for a second time.
He had first been arrested at Heathrow Airport after officers discovered dozens of decomposing bodies inside his funeral home.
Bush complained to officers: “I don’t understand. I’ve been arrested off a plane at gunpoint. It’s like I’m Che Guevara or something.
Police guard the Beckside branch of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors on March 12, 2024 Credit: Getty
Robert Bush was the monster behind the crimes Credit: Unknown
“I’m not that complicated. I’ve said so many times, ‘Let me help you, I’ll come in and talk to you.’
“I know I’m not good at accounting, me handwriting’s bad and all that, and I’m sure there’s times when you’ve looked at things and gone, ‘I don’t know what that means’.”
During police interviews, detectives challenged Bush over why “25 or so bodies” had never been cremated when they should have been.
Bush replied: “The debt started to accrue. The level of cash flow problems that I was having… It presented an opportunity that I did not have to maybe do it immediately.
“If I held on to the bodies for a little bit and back-filled another one and catch up. But I didn’t catch up.”
The full scale of the horror has emerged during Bush’s sentencing hearing at Hull Crown Court – where more than 80 victims or their relatives described how their lives were shattered.
The court heard he spent more than £42,000 on while defrauding scores of grieving families.
Bush also splashed out £9,000 on in 2022.
Cops outside the funeral directors Credit: PA
The view from Bush’s side of his desk Credit: Humberside Police
That same year, he failed to cremate Jasmine Beverley’s unborn baby, Sunny Beverley-Conlin, leaving the baby’s body in a paper bag on the floor of the funeral home.
Financial records showed that between 2017 and 2024, Bush spent £21,000 on motorcycle racing and £17,400 on home improvements.
Prosecutors said he pocketed customers’ money for funeral plans he was not authorised to provide before handing some families the wrong ashes.
His spending spree included £6,400 on three Centre Parcs trips, £3,800 on a holiday to and £3,000 on the Arizona break he was enjoying with his daughter when the scandal was uncovered.
Almost £10,000 of retail spending included £1,000 at Boodles jewellers and £3,385 in , the court heard.
Prosecutor Steven Ball said almost £1.49million was transferred from Legacy Funeral Directors’ business accounts into Bush’s personal bank account between March 2017 and April 2024.
Jurors heard more than £3million passed through Bush’s and the firm’s accounts during that period, but the turnover reported to and did not reflect the true figures.
The court was told the shocking discovery happened by chance while Bush was holidaying in Arizona.
Robert Bush will be sentenced this week Credit: PA
Motorcycle racing clothing stored at the funeral parlour Credit: Humberside Police
Bush had asked Gary Pickering and Steve Emmerson, directors of Evergreen Funeral Directors, to recover a body for him while he was away.
Legacy worker Patrick Moore helped the pair before revealing Bush had warned him “not to bring anyone back to Legacy or help put a body into the fridge area”.
Mr Moore then told the funeral directors: “You two don’t know the half of it, bodies have been there for years.”
Alarmed by the claim, Mr Emmerson later rang Mr Moore and asked how many bodies were inside the premises.
After counting them, Mr Moore estimated there were 29 bodies, describing the scene as something from a “horror scene”.
Police were called to the Hessle Road funeral home in March 2024 and discovered 35 bodies along with more than 100 sets of ashes.
Bush since admitted 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, theft from 12 charities and 30 counts of fraud by false representation relating to bodies found at the premises.
He also pleaded guilty to four fraud offences involving unborn babies, after falsely telling grieving mothers ashes he handed over were “the remains of their unborn”.
Bush further admitted fraud involving the ashes of 57 people between 2017 and 2024, along with a charge of fraudulent trading linked to funeral plans sold between 2012 and 2024.
He is due to be sentenced at Hull Crown Court later this week.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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