The parents of two dead children whose bodies were kept at a funeral director’s home in Leeds have welcomed the government’s plan to look into formal regulation of the funeral sector.
Zoe Ward’s baby, Bleu, was three weeks old when he died of brain damage at Leeds General Infirmary at 2021, she later discovered he had been kept at Amie Upton’s home sat in front of the television.
The government announcement came after funeral director Robert Bush, from Hull, was jailed for failing to bury or cremate people and giving bereaved relatives the ashes of strangers.
Ward said regulation should have been in place “a long time ago” and it was “long overdue”.
“I find it positive. I hope its not going to take too long because while this is happening there are still those rogue funeral directors out there hurting people,” she said.
Following her son’s death, Ward asked Florrie’s Army, run by Upton, to arrange his funeral and said the service she was offered sounded “amazing”.
However, she became unsure when her son’s body was picked up by a man in a “scruffy” silver car.
“People were looking in on him, there were no blacked out windows, people could see my dead baby on that front seat.”
The next day she decided to visit Upton at her home.
“I looked over and Bleu was in a bouncer chair, mucky, and she was bouncing him with her foot.
“There was another dead baby on the sofa and I had a good look, I shouldn’t have been able too.”
Ward’s mother then arranged for another funeral director to collect Bleu’s body and he was removed from Upton’s care.
“I will never get over what I saw in that house that day,” she said.
She said she hopes that if new laws are introduced it would give people a “bit of peace” in “knowing we are safe after death”.
