Grieving mum was told baby's ashes were animal remains

A woman who suffered a miscarriage says she was told by police ashes returned to her by funeral director Robert Bush were "animal remains".

The BBC understands police were unable to verify the origin of the ashes, but believed they may not be human.

Lucy Ness, 28, told the BBC: "Police visited to tell me that the ashes that he had given me were animal remains."

Bush, 48, is being sentenced at Hull Crown Court for 67 offences, including denying 30 people a decent and proper burial and fraud charges relating to presenting families with the ashes of strangers.

Ness suffered a miscarriage just before she was due to have her 12-week scan on April 20 2021.

She told how she had treasured the ashes for three years.

"They had sat on my shelf next to my baby scan," said Ness.

In court, prosecutor Chris Paxton KC said "the ashes that Lucy was given could not have been those of her baby".

The barrister did not state that they were of animal origin.

Ness was clear to the BBC, however, that police had told her the ashes were animal remains.

Her disgust at Bush was clear.

She said: "How can somebody with a duty of care do this to my family?"

She and her partner, Callum Ellerby, were told their baby was cremated on 10 May 2021.

"We didn't know the gender," said Ness. "We were not going to know the gender."

The day after the cremation was meant to have taken place, Bush, from Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, rang her and asked her to collect the ashes, which she did.

They were contained in a white china urn with a teddy bear embossed on it, Ness recalled.

When Humberside Police announced they were investigating Legacy in March 2024, Ness rang the helpline set up for anyone concerned.

The force then contacted her to say the ashes she had in her home could not be that of her baby, she said.

Officers explained to Ness that they had checked records at the crematorium and found Bush collected the baby's ashes on 13 May - two days after he had presented Ness and Ellerby with the urn.

She said: "I have felt very up and down. This has definitely impacted on my mental health."

Bush, who was arrested at Heathrow Airport after returning from a holiday in the US, was not charged with denying Ness's baby a burial because of the age of the foetus.

But Ness said: "All babies need to be recognised. A baby is a baby."

She has now joined growing calls for regulation of the funeral industry.

"There is regulation with doctors, nurses, dentists... anyone with a duty of care but none applied to him [Bush]," said Ness. "I definitely think there needs to be regulation.

"I am never going to know what happened to my baby. He [Bush] probably does not know because he has done it to so many other other.

"But I hope my baby's remains are with someone who loves them like I loved these."

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