Two funeral directors have been jailed for four years after a body was found decomposing in an unrefrigerated mortuary room, having been left there for 36 days. Richard Elkin, 49, and Hayley Bell, 42, who ran Elkin and Bell Funerals in Gosport, Hampshire, were convicted of public nuisance, preventing the decent burial of a body and fraud offences following a trial at Portsmouth Crown Court.
The court heard that the body of 87-year-old William Mitchell was discovered by High Court enforcement agents repossessing the premises due to unpaid rent and debts. The mortuary room was not refrigerated, and water was leaking through the roof. The temperature was recorded at 11.48C, well above the recommended 4C for storing bodies after 48 hours. Judge James Newton-Price KC said the pair 'continually neglected your duty to refrigerate bodies to an adequate level' to reduce running costs.
Statements from 13 families were read to the court, describing loved ones covered in maggots, shedding skin and lying in their own fluids. Patricia Williams, known as Ann, was found in such a bad condition she had been frozen. Her son Lee Williams said: 'I witnessed my mother’s body in a state of decomposition... It is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life.'
The judge said he was sure the temperature log was not genuine and was intended to mislead environmental health officers. He added: 'No sentence in this case can ever be the reflection of the value or the worth of the lives of those deceased.' The case has renewed calls for urgent regulation of the funeral sector.
