Dreadful legacy: Was Robert Bush emboldened by lack of justice for Alder funeral?

FUNERAL SCANDALS: Christopher Alder, left, and Legacy Independent Funeral Directors

By Simon Bristow, Co-Editor

A funeral scandal that “caused anguish and pain on a scale beyond comprehension” may have been avoided had anyone been held accountable for an earlier burial scandal, it has been claimed.

The Hull Story can today reveal that disgraced funeral director Robert Bush and his company, Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, conducted the second funeral of former paratrooper Christopher Alder, whose body was found in a mortuary 11 years after his family thought they had buried him.

Legacy was commissioned to conduct the second Alder funeral by Hull City Council, which also paid for it.

The original funeral of the 37-year-old black former soldier was held at Northern Cemetery, Hull, on November 25, 2000. But in November 2011, his body was found in the morgue at Hull Royal Infirmary. The body of Grace Kamara, a 77-year-old Nigerian widow, had been buried in his place.

Christopher’s sister Janet Alder now believes the “lack of accountability” over the burial of the wrong body showed Bush what he could get away with in the early days of Legacy, and that had action been taken, the Legacy scandal may have been prevented.

“If people were held accountable in Christopher and Grace’s case, this might never have happened,” Janet said. “It’s one of those situations [where]… accountability would have made him and others think twice about doing it.”

South Yorkshire Police conducted a 15-month investigation into how the wrong body was buried in the Alder / Kamara case but no arrests were made, and after a file was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service in 2013 it was decided there was no realistic prospect of a conviction for either misconduct in a public office or the prevention of a lawful burial.

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police said: “South Yorkshire Police’s investigation resulted in a file being passed to the Crown Prosecution Service, however it was determined that there was insufficient evidence to secure a successful prosecution.

 “Our thoughts remain with Mr Alder’s family and all of those affected.”

It can also be revealed that the decision not to prosecute was reviewed six years ago, albeit with the same outcome.

The CPS said: “That decision was reconsidered in 2020 when the police provided new information, but following a further review we concluded that the evidence was still not sufficient to prosecute. Our thoughts remain with Mr Alder’s family.”

Bush formed Legacy in 2010 and his crimes began on May 23, 2012, three months after he conducted Christopher’s second funeral on February 9. His offending continued for nearly 12 years.

JAILED: Robert Bush, described as ‘heartless’ by a judge

Bush, 48, formerly of Kirk Ella, was last week jailed for 20 years after pleading guilty to 67 offences, including preventing the lawful and decent burial of 30 bodies, following one of the biggest and most complex investigations in Humberside Police history.

Bush left hundreds of victims in his wake, some of whom had to have second funerals for their loved ones after discovering their bodies had not been cremated as they had been led to believe, and they had instead been given someone else’s ashes.

As well as giving dozens of families the wrong ashes, Bush fraudulently sold funeral plans and stole thousands of pounds in cash from donations made at funerals that were intended for 12 local and national charities.

Sentencing him at Hull Crown Court, Mr Justice Hilliard said Bush was “very confident that he would get away with what he was doing”.

The judge, who said Bush was motivated by greed, also said: “… the awful truth is that anyone whose loved one went through Legacy at any time when it was operating can now have no confidence as to how they were treated or as to whose ashes they have, unless of course they were one of the 30 bodies recovered in March 2024.”

Janet said she now has no certainty about what happened at Christopher’s second funeral, which she did not attend because she was too distressed.

The CPS was not sent any evidence relating to burials by Humberside Police as part of its investigation into Bush.

Janet said Bush was “obviously not a nice person” and asked: “So what would stop him not burying Christopher? Why would he bury Christopher and not all these other people? In my mind, there’s doubt.”

A lack of accountability has been a defining feature of the Christopher Alder case, whose death in police custody is one of the most controversial episodes in Humberside Police history.

Christopher, who served in the Falklands and Northern Ireland, had been arrested after a scuffle outside a nightclub and died in Queen’s Gardens police station in Hull on April 1, 1998. An inquest jury in 2000 found the father-of-two was unlawfully killed.

In 2002, five police officers went on trial charged with Christopher’s manslaughter and misconduct in public office, but were acquitted on the orders of the judge.

A 2006 report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission found that four of the officers involved were “guilty of the most serious neglect of duty”, and that Christopher’s treatment met the definition of “unwitting racism” as described in the Macpherson report into the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

‘NO ACCOUNTABILITY’: Janet Alder. The second funeral of her brother Christopher Alder was conducted by Robert Bush

Internal disciplinary hearings against the officers involved were held but ended prematurely when the charges were dismissed.

In 2018, two Humberside Police officers accused of conducting unauthorised surveillance on Janet and her barrister at the 2000 inquest were cleared of gross misconduct after a panel found there was no case to answer. The panel accepted the surveillance had taken place.

In an interview with The Hull Story and The Sunday Times at her home in Halifax this week, Janet said the system has let her down “over and over continuously”.

Describing how she felt when she learned she had not buried Christopher at his original funeral, Janet said: “I was just in a mess. It just felt like the ball was rolling again. It was just so awful. You don’t just have one collapse, you have another collapse in your life. The nightmare just rumbled on after that.”

A spokeswoman for Humberside Police said: “At the request of Humberside Police, South Yorkshire Police carried out an independent investigation which resulted in them submitting a file to the Crown Prosecution Service in 2013. However, it was determined that there was insufficient evidence to secure a successful prosecution.

“Legacy Independent Funeral Directors was chosen by Hull City Council to conduct the second funeral of Christopher Alder in 2012.

“Our thoughts remain with Mr Alder’s family and loved ones, along with all those affected by the actions of Robert Bush, and we will always remember the lives of those who were entrusted to Legacy Independent Funeral Directors.”

Hull City Council said in a statement: “We appreciate this very unfortunate connection to Legacy Independent Funeral Directors will be very distressing for Christopher Alder’s family and friends and would like to express our deepest condolences to them.

“Legacy Independent Funeral Directors was chosen by Hull City Council to conduct the funeral of Christopher Alder because it was a local provider. It should be borne in mind that there was no indication that there were any issues with Legacy at this time.

“These funeral arrangements were paid for by the council. We no longer hold records indicating the cost.”

Janet said: “Me and my family have been treated like nothing and this has been continuous for years, and once again now.

“It’s just rekindled everything, it brings it all back up again. I was just beginning to build my faith [and it has] been totally destroyed [again].”