Retired trawlerman Peter Welburn doted on Shirley, his wife of 50 years. So when she died in November 2023 at the age of 73 he was, of course, completely bereft.
The 74-year-old grandfather wanted to give her the send-off she deserved and so contacted Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, in Hull, which claimed to offer ‘dignified personal care’ at reasonable prices.
He paid almost £2,000 for his late wife’s funeral. The ceremony was held the following month at Legacy’s premises under the watchful eye of the company’s motor racing enthusiast director Robert Bush, a softly spoken 48-year-old whose mild-mannered, polite façade often put bereaved families at ease as they placed their trust in him.
Mr Welburn was pleased to receive a wooden box with his wife’s ashes four days later on December 23 – ‘in time for Christmas, her favourite time of year’ – and the ashes were indeed placed at the foot of the Christmas tree as her grandchildren played nearby.
Yet Mr Welburn, whose living room is adorned with framed photographs of his late wife, was soon to be confronted with the most unimaginable news: the ashes in the white wooden box were not his wife’s.
After news broke in March 2024 that police were investigating Bush and Legacy over the alleged stockpiling of bodies in the funeral parlour and relatives being given the wrong ashes, Mr Welburn contacted the crematorium in Leeds where his wife had been cremated (it was ‘cheaper’ than doing it in Hull, Bush had told him).
To his horror – that turned to anger – he was told she hadn’t actually been cremated until January 2024.
‘There is only one person that knows where she really went and that is him [Bush],’ Mr Welburn told the Daily Mail.
‘I feel like killing him, that’s how I feel. He has been walking free for the last couple of years.
Retired trawlerman Peter Welburn paid £2,000 for his wife’s funeral but was given the wrong ashes by Robert Bush
Robert Bush, 47, admitted leaving 30 bodies to rot while taking money from their loved ones
Pictured: Bush’s victims
‘I have given the ashes back to the police. I don’t know who they belong to. They were in a box with our wedding photograph on.
‘What gets me is that I could have gone to see her over Christmas and New Year in the rest room. She was still in there [in Bush’s care] until January 16 in the back room freezer.’
After Bush pleaded guilty to 30 counts of preventing a lawful burial and theft on Thursday – he had earlier pleaded guilty pleas to 35 counts of fraud and one count of fraudulent trading – the full scale of his ‘evil’ offending which has left hundreds of families traumatised can be laid bare.
According to campaigner Karen Dry, who has fought for justice after her parents were sent to Bush for cremation three years apart, more than one bereaved relative used ashes they were given to have permanent tributes to their relatives tattooed into their arms. The ashes are mixed with the tattoo ink.
‘Now they have no idea who is tattooed into their arms,’ Mrs Dry said. ‘It’s a despicable thing to do. The man is a monster.’
Mrs Dry’s parents, Allan and Betty Griffin, who died in 2016 and 2019, were also sent to Bush’s Legacy premises in Hull. ‘We scattered my mum’s ashes in a rosebush,’ Mrs Dry said.
‘I don’t even know if that was her remains. Nobody has got any idea if the remains they have are of the family member who was cremated.
‘We have no real idea when the criminality started. There are always going to be questions now: have we got the right ashes or not? This is the last thing you need on your mind if you lose your parents or other loved ones.
‘I will never know if I have got my mam or dad’s ashes. It’s one thing you have to do for your family – make sure they have a good send-off and then you find out a couple of years later you might not even have their ashes.
‘It’s horrific. It’s a constant source of torment.’
Despite what is now known about Bush, it is unsurprising that so many people placed their faith in him at such a traumatic time in their lives. For almost 15 years, his funeral business enjoyed a positive reputation in and around his home city.
Despite the ‘horror movie’ which has now been exposed, behind its dignified black facade, the Hull funeral parlour initially rang few alarm bells.
Bush also admitted theft from 12 charities, including the Salvation Army and Macmillan Cancer Support
Karen Dry’s parents, Betty and Allan Griffin, who died in 2019 and 2016, were sent to Bush’s funeral parlour
Families who had put their trust in Legacy Independent Funeral Directors would praise father-of-two Bush, the son of a local headmistress, for doing an ‘outstanding job’.
On its website, where funeral packages were on offer ranging from £970 to £4,999, Bush was described as a ‘highly trained funeral director, with many years of experience, holding industry recognised qualifications’.
The success of the business – with two branches in Hull and one in nearby Beverley – allowed the family to afford a large detached house in a nearby suburb.
Along with his daughter Saskya, 24, a mechanical engineering graduate who helped run the business, the Bush family raced motorbikes in their spare time.
They were pictured in action at Brands Hatch and Snetterton on social media, where Saskya could also be seen soaking up the sun in Spain and Cape Verde and visiting Rome and Norway.
She was arrested when the scandal first erupted but was not charged with any offences.
However, despite the respectable facade, Legacy and the Bush family were struggling financially.
The accounts had been overdue and the firm received its fifth ‘compulsory strike off’ warning in two years, owing £62,000 in unpaid debts. Meanwhile, a mortuary fridge and hearses from Legacy, as well as other possessions, were for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
By 2017, Bush had resorted to stealing charity collection boxes set up by mourners at funerals.
Although the precise amount stolen is unknown, Bush pleaded guilty on Thursday to stealing from 12 charities, including Macmillan Cancer Support, the RNLI and Help for Heroes.
He had also been receiving thousands of pounds for funeral plans and, instead of putting this towards funeral arrangements, kept the money for himself.
Guilty funeral director Robert Bush leaves Hull Crown Court, Kingston-upon-Hull, on Thursday
Jasmine Beverley’s son, Sunny Beverley-Conlin, died prematurely in May 2022. Two years after his funeral they discovered the ashes were not his
The nightmares behind the doors of Legacy were finally exposed in March 2024 following an anonymous call to the police reporting ‘concern for care of the deceased’ and the premises were raided.
Humberside Police would go on to say they had recovered 35 bodies as well as half a ton of human ashes, with 120 officers and staff working on the case.
Appalled funeral industry experts said there should be no reason for so many bodies to be stored at one parlour. The grim discovery prompted thousands of people to call a helpline to see if their loved ones had been involved.
Michaela Baldwin’s stepfather, Danny Middleton, was one of the bodies found in the funeral parlour.
He still had his hospital wristband on, meaning he was more easily identified than some of the 34 others, who faced the trauma of providing DNA samples and photographs to identify relatives. One of the bodies was that of a baby lost in pregnancy.
Such was the discovery, a diving unit experienced in dealing with decomposing remains had to be called in.
A larger gentleman, Mr Middleton’s family joked on the day of his funeral that his coffin looked like a tight squeeze for his frame. Now they know he was never in it.
Ms Baldwin told the Daily Mail: ‘We were given ashes thinking it was Danny and it turned out he was still at Legacy.’
His body had been stored at Bush’s funeral parlour for five months by the time of the police raid in March 2024.
‘I was completely shocked,’ she added. ‘He was supposed to be buried in December, after his death in November. Then we are told by the police that they have found his body.
‘This sort of stuff doesn’t happen in real life. It’s like being in a horror film. You read about these things in books or see it on TV shows. ‘Everybody trusted him [Bush]. He was always saying, ‘oh, bless. Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss’. He knew how to comfort people.
‘It’s completely devastating to think he took my stepfather and dumped him like a piece of rubbish. I f****** hate him.’
The body of Jessie Stockdal, 87, was also found at the premises – three months after she died.
Her family had taken home what they thought were her ashes and placed them over the fireplace following her funeral.
Humberside Police launched an investigation into Legacy Independent Funeral Directors across three premises in Hull and East Yorkshire in March last year
Shirley Welburn was cremated at the funeral home but her husband, Peter, was given someone else’s ashes. He said he was so angry he ‘felt like killing’ Bush
Grandson Tristan Essex, 26, said: ‘We’d been in there a few times afterwards to get the ashes transferred, and the whole time my grandma was there in the back, just rotting.’
Ms Stockdale’s body was still wearing the ankle bracelet placed on her during a post mortem examination but was ultimately identified using DNA samples.
Mr Essex added: ‘We were feeling every emotion possible, we hadn’t even started grieving really. It makes me feel sick.’
Of his grandmother, he said: ‘She honestly was my best friend, she was like a mother to me, she brought me up as a kid.’
He added: ‘[Bush] has broken every memory I’ve had with my grandma… He’s taken our goodbyes off us, we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.’
In retrospect, warning signs had been there as customers started to complain about the quality of the funerals Bush had arranged, with substandard coffins that were dented, leading to suspicions that they were second-hand.
‘The car was late, the flowers were not fastened down properly to the coffin and were not the ones they had ordered,’ was one account.
‘Then, afterwards, the ‘spread’ they paid for at the funeral parlour was really poor, mainly tea and biscuits.’
A daughter described a similar experience at her father’s funeral.
‘I wanted a bit more spent on the flowers but they were just fake ones spelling out Dad that had been lying around.’
Concerns also began to take on a more sinister perspective.
Locals who had paid thousands of pounds for coffins and cremation fees said they never received any proof that caskets were actually cremated – and often did not even get the ashes back.
Some were suspicious because their services were held at the Hull parlour, not at the crematorium.
During the service they were shown an unopened casket and told their loved one was inside, raising concerns over whether it was in fact empty and whether the supposed cremations ever actually took place.
Some later received ashes but complained they often had to pester Bush for them.
While the true scale of Bush’s offending may never be known, Mrs Dry and Ms Baldwin are adamant there was only one motive behind his crimes: money.
After all, Mrs Dry points out, he was arrested by police officers at Heathrow airport in 2024 returning to the country from a trip to the United States.
Danny Middleton, pictured with granddaughters Ellie and Jenna, was one of the bodies found in the funeral parlour.
‘He had motorbikes… expensive hobbies,’ she said. ‘There was some sort of lavish lifestyle.’
Bush now has until July to reflect on his offending and was granted bail by the judge, Mr Justice Hilliard – another insult to some of the families affected, Ms Baldwin said.
But it allowed some of the families the chance to tell the former undertaker what their offending meant to them.
‘Rot in hell,’ was one of the heckles as Bush made his way to a black taxi. ‘Monster’ and ‘wicked b*****’ were others.
There was, understandably, no sympathy for the man in the dark three-piece suit who looked to the floor and twiddled his thumbs in the dock as he was told he faces a prison sentence when he returns for his sentencing in the summer.
‘He hasn’t felt sorry for us, the victims,’ Ms Baldwin said.
‘He didn’t feel sorry for our loved ones. I don’t think he feels anything. It was out of sight, out of mind. I think he is a pure, true monster.’