Bodycam footage: Police found chaos and horror in Legacy search

By Simon Bristow, Co-Editor

Eerie and full of horrors, the police search of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors began at 11.11pm on March 6, 2024.

Bodycam footage released by Humberside Police today shows three officers probing their way around the now notorious site in Hessle Road by torchlight.

“Strange, innit?” says one as they get under way. “Freaky” says another as they step cautiously about.

Their apprehension was understandable. Four hours earlier, two funeral directors from another firm, who had just visited the premises, had flagged down a passing police car and were described as “shaken”.

They had insisted on being let in after a casual employee of Legacy owner Robert Bush had told them: “You don’t know the half of it. Bodies have been there for years.”

And strange it certainly was. Hanging on a wall were what appeared to be three leather suits for car or motorcycle racing, each with a helmet above it. The careful way in which they were stored was incongruous with the overall impression, which was chaos.

One room with a steel sink, washing machines and steel worktops contained opened cardboard boxes, plastic shopping bags and a range of other items including urns, toilet roll and scissors. On a brown paper bag were brass coffin handles.

A printed sign on a wall said: “When you remove The Empty Box Please Replace It.”

In another area, where a hearse was parked, were the frames of two white Mini cars. An office with screwed up paper on the desk had cardboard boxes on the floor, a pale blue shirt on the back of a chair, a kettle, and a TV screen mounted on the wall.

Further along the labyrinthine layout was a corridor with a sofa, a large plant and a black and white picture on the wall of what looked like the Lord Line building on St Andrew’s Dock.

Up ahead was the small chapel, where some victims had attended services for their loved ones.

The footage released does not show the grim and shocking discovery that triggered one of the largest and most complex investigations in the force’s history – the cold storage area where officers found “a large number of human bodies”.

They were stored on racks on both sides of the room, with a further naked body on a stretcher on the floor. Most were in varying states of decomposition. There was “evidence of human putrefaction” on the floor, and a mop and bucket in the corner, which “contained further evidence of putrefaction”.

Bush, 48, formerly of Kirkella and now of Otley, West Yorkshire, has pleaded guilty to 67 offences, including preventing the lawful and decent burial of 30 bodies, after one of the biggest and most complex investigations in Humberside Police history.

The offences are:

• Counts 1 to 30 relate to preventing the lawful and decent burial of 30 bodies between April 20, 2023, and March 6, 2024.

• Counts 31 to 60 relate to fraud by false representation and mirror counts 1 to 30 as they relate to the associated ashes fraud.

• Count 61 relates to fraudulent trading over a period of 11 years, 10 months in respect of 226 victims totalling £562,117.00.

• Count 62 is a ‘rolled-up’ count relating to fraud by false representation in relation to 57 sets of ashes between August 1, 2017, and March 6, 2024.

• Counts 63 to 66 relate to fraud by false representation in relation to the foetal remains of four unborn babies.

• Count 67 relates to theft from 12 charities between September 1, 2017, and March 6, 2024, totalling between £5,040 and £13,500 (the mean figure is £9,270).

Bush’s sentencing hearing at Hull Crown Court began on Monday and is expected to conclude on Friday.