The family of Mark Hotham will never forgive rogue funeral director Robert Bush for treating his uncle "like a rotten piece of meat." Nigel Hotham's "beautiful, kind" uncle was one of the bodies left rotting at Bush's Legacy Independent Funeral Director's Hull warehouse for months, and Nigel described the conditions as "disgusting."
Mark Hotham, who was 82 when he died, was the final body to be identified. His body was so badly decomposed that the only identification came from the serial number on his hearing aid.
Nigel Hotham said: "When the police said 'we think we've got your uncle Mark', it was like I'd been hit by a train. My world collapsed, my mouth went dry. When they first came to see me, I asked to see some clothes my uncle was wearing. I said straight away that they were the type of clothes he would wear. My uncle Mark was the last man standing; he was the last to be identified. They obtained DNA from his half brother, but that wasn't a suitable match. They tried to match the replacement hip they'd put into his body, but the coroner said that wasn't enough. Our final option was they'd left him in his hearing aid and they matched the serial number to a database. This took two or three months. We were the last family to get our relative back. It's been a rollercoaster."
Six months in a morgue
Nigel said it was believed his uncle's body had been left abandoned for six months. He described a police video from inside Bush's morgue as "one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen in my life."
"It was like the back of a supermarket where you would store chilled veg or salad. A very small place with shelves. They showed me where my uncle was laid and it was just the worst place you would think of leaving someone."
"We weren't allowed to view him and I wouldn't have wanted to, he was too badly decomposed. I never got chance to say goodbye."
Bush's catalogue of offences
Bush, 48, was jailed last Friday for 20 years for Britain's biggest ever funeral parlour scandal. He breached the trust of grieving families "on an almost industrial scale" by keeping bodies for months after they should have been cremated, giving out the wrong ashes, taking money for funeral plans without making any arrangements, and stealing charity donations collected at services.
In some cases, Bush mixed up ashes and used a communal store to give to families when they asked for their loved ones back. One of four women given the wrong ashes for their unborn babies, Lucy Ness, was found to contain what are thought to be animal remains.
One victim said the horrors behind the doors of his business reminded her of "bodies found in Auschwitz." His spree of 67 offences spanned 12 years, and a judge said nobody who used his business could be sure their loved one had been correctly laid to rest.
Regulation promised
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has promised to regulate the funeral industry after the lack of licensing was exposed by the Bush case.
Veteran funeral director David Knowles said statutory regulation for his profession "could not come soon enough." He added: "This case cannot simply end with a prison sentence. It must become the catalyst for meaningful change. Families deserve accountability. Families deserve transparency. Families deserve protection. And above all else, families deserve complete confidence that their loved one will be treated with dignity and respect at all times."
