Robert Bush, the former funeral director jailed for 20 years for offences including preventing lawful burials, has lodged an application to appeal against his sentence.
Bush was imprisoned in July for 67 offences, including 30 counts of preventing a lawful burial, after betraying customers' trust "on an industrial scale" for 12 years. He confessed to crimes affecting hundreds of victims, with 31 decomposing bodies discovered at his funeral parlour, Legacy, leaving families uncertain whether they had received the correct ashes.
Sentencing and victim impact
His sentencing hearing heard testimony from some of the 226 pensioners who claimed they had been "conned" out of their savings after being sold fraudulent funeral plans by Bush. Passing sentence on the 48-year-old, senior judge Mr Justice Hillard said he had "never known offences affect so many people so deeply".
Following Bush's imprisonment, many family members in the public gallery declared the prison term was insufficient, with one describing it as "atrocious". Joanne Moody, whose father Peter Moody was among the 31 bodies recovered at Legacy, said after the hearing: "It's a joke, he's going to be out in 10 years. There's no justice for any of us...we're not going to get closure."
Reaction to appeal application
Jasmine Beverley, whose unborn child's remains were discovered on the floor of Bush's Hull premises, told the BBC she is "troubled" that victims may have to "relive the hurt they have already experienced" should an appeal hearing go ahead. Tristan Essex, grandson of Jessie Stockdale, whose body was also found at Legacy, told the broadcaster he is "absolutely disgusted" by Bush's application to appeal, which has added "cruelty to our suffering".
Bush is yet to learn the outcome of his application to the Court of Appeal, with a decision expected at a later date.
