‘I trusted you with the most precious person in my life’ – heartbroken mum faces funeral director Robert Bush in court

The brave woman sobbed as she faced the man who kept her baby boy in a paper bag

A woman whose baby’s body was found in a paper bag on the floor of funeral director Robert Bush’s business sobbed as she told him: “I trusted you with the most precious person in my life.” Jasmine Beverley said she chose to use Legacy Independent Funeral Directors when her son Sunny Beverley-Conlin was “born sleeping” on May 13 2022.

The court heard Ms Beverley and her partner Ben chose Bush because she had previously used him for her late father’s funeral. She tearfully told Hull Crown Court: “My son Sunny was born sleeping, but he was loved long before he entered this world and he will be loved for the rest of my life.

“When a parent loses a baby, all they hope for is that their child will be treated with dignity, care and respect. “That is why we place enormous trust in the people responsible for caring for our loved ones after death.”

She turned to face Bush in the dock, who showed no emotion as she told him: “I trusted you with the most precious person in my life.” The court heard the couple visited Sunny at Legacy on June 16 and left him a photograph of the family, a blue fleece blanket and some flowers.

A small service took place on June 17, at Legacy’s chapel, and the couple understood that Sunny was to be cremated at Chanterlands Avenue Crematorium. They collected his ashes on March 30 2023, when Bush handed them the little blue coffin and told them that Sunny’s ashes were inside in an envelope, the court heard.

Sunny’s remains were recovered at Legacy almost two years after he was born, when a police officer found them in a brown paper bag on the floor. Ms Beverley sobbed as she said: “When I discovered what had happened, it reopened that trauma in a way I cannot fully describe.

“It felt like being pulled back into the darkest time of my life. The grief, anxiety and distress returned with such intensity that I again found myself struggling mentally and emotionally. She went on to say: “Your actions have taken away something that can never be replaced: the peace of believing our loved ones were treated with care and respect after death.

“The reality I now live with is that my baby boy Sunny has spent more time in your possession than he ever did with his own family. I have to live with the fact that my son was kept for so long without my knowledge, and that when he was eventually found he was in a brown paper bag on the floor.

“As a mother, that is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.” Ms Beverley was one of four women who was given the wrong ashes for their babies by Bush.

All four gave emotional statements in court on Tuesday, where it was also heard that Bush was a “cruel conman” who “fooled a lot of people in Hull with his mild manner” while using their grief to fund his lifestyle.

The sentencing hearing continues and Bush was further remanded in custody.

In April, Bush changed his pleas to guilty on 31 charges, including 30 of preventing the lawful and decent burials of dead people and one offence of theft from charities.

Bush originally denied the offences and a trial was due to be held in October. He had already admitted 36 fraud-related offences.

Bush, 48, formerly of Kirk Ella, but later of East Busk Lane, Otley, West Yorkshire, was involved with the running of the Legacy funeral homes.

He originally entered pleas to 67 charges during his second appearance at Hull Crown Court last year. Two extra fraud charges had been added to the previous ones.

Bush had, at the earlier hearing, denied 30 charges involving preventing the lawful and decent burial of dead people and he also denied one offence of theft from a series of charities. He admitted 30 offences of fraud by false representation to the families or, in one case, a friend of a deceased person.

He also admitted fraudulent trading and five offences of fraud by false representation to customers of Legacy Funeral Homes or individual people. But at the latest hearing, Bush changed his pleas to guilty on the matters which he had originally denied.

The 30 charges involving preventing the lawful and decent burial of dead people and the one offence of theft were put to him again. He entered guilty pleas to them all.

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