Allegations in funeral sector show ‘urgent need’ for regulation, inquiry warns

The review highlighted alleged incidents including a funeral assistant taking photos of a person being embalmed and sexual assault.

Inquiry chairman Sir Jonathan Michael is investigating how people who have died are looked after around the country (Lucy North/PA) (PA Wire)

Decomposing bodies and unidentified ashes were among allegations uncovered by an inquiry investigating how people are cared for after they have died, amid a “renewed public interest” in regulating funeral directors.

Sir Jonathan Michael, who is investigating how people who have died are looked after around the country in the wake of necrophiliac killer David Fuller’s mortuary abuse, described the funeral sector as an “unregulated free-for-all” in a report published on the industry.

The review highlighted alleged incidents including a funeral assistant taking photos of a person being embalmed, of people being left to decompose or covered in mouldy sheets, and the sexual assault of a dead woman by a funeral director in the 1990s.

While the report found 81% of more than 100 funeral organisations that responded to its questionnaire said they were not aware of incidents breaching privacy, security and dignity of people who died in the sector, others detailed distressing allegations.

Some other reported incidents, which the inquiry did not verify, included:

– People being “left outside on a table”.– A staff member “disturbed” a person out of working hours twice in the same evening.– Four people being stored unrefrigerated being found in an “advanced state of decomposition”.– One person was also found in the same state at another location where unidentified ashes and human remains were also discovered.– People being left in unlocked buildings unattended.

While the report said it was unable to investigate the allegations or comment on ongoing criminal investigations, it added: “We highlight the existence of these allegations in order to emphasise the urgent need for independent statutory regulation in the sector.”

The independent review also detailed court cases after Kasim Khuram was sentenced to six years in prison for burglary and sexual penetration of a corpse at the Central England Co-operative undertakers in Birmingham in 2019, the report said.

Meanwhile in 2022, the report highlighted Nigel Robinson-Wright was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes including taking pictures at Martin’s Funeral Directors in Preston where he worked.

In photos he posed next to open coffins and naked people who had died and offered to supply crystal meth to a man to facilitate sexual activity in the funeral home, it said.

The inquiry said it wrote to the company to ask what security measures it had in place at the time and if anything has changed as a result but it did not provide the information.

The report noted a renewed public interest in regulating funeral directors after “recent allegations of poor practice” referred to in the findings.

The inquiry also released its interim report focusing on the sector after “distressing” allegations of neglect as police are continuing to investigate a funeral directors in Hull.

Officers recovered 35 bodies and suspected human ashes at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors after concerns were raised about storage and management processes relating to the care of the people who died on March 8 this year.