Jailed, graves worker in cruel burial plot con
A FORMER gravedigger was jailed yesterday for mis-selling burial plots and graves containing human remains to grieving families.
Willie Henderson fraudulently created deeds and sold them to families burying loved ones.
He also oversaw the ‘over-burial’ of a couple at Mount Vernon Cemetery in Liberton, Edinburgh, where families were sold an unmarked grave which already contained a man’s remains.
Some victims saw their relatives’ remains buried in a pauper’s grave alongside a stillborn baby, while another was buried under a path.
Henderson, a worker at the cemetery for the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh since 1997 who became superintendent in 2014, made £14,720 from the scheme between 2006 and 2015.
The 46-year-old was jailed for 16 months at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after earlier admitting a charge affecting 13 families. Sheriff Donald Corke said Henderson had ‘deliberately and systematically cheated people’, then covered his tracks by altering official records and producing false documents. He added: ‘You did this in the most hypocritical, callous way, while pretending to be loyal to the Church and a friend to people at their most vulnerable.’
The court heard Henderson, of Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, was ‘remorseful’ and had lodged funds to repay the £14,720 under a compensation order but Sheriff Corke said: ‘Your appreciation of the seriousness of your actions comes late in the day.’
On hearing the sentence, victims of Henderson shouted ‘it’s a joke’ and ‘that’s nothing’.
After the court hearing one said: ‘I’m disappointed with the sentence – what Henderson did was disgusting. With good behaviour he’ll be out in less than a year. He’s got off lightly.’
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh said: ‘Henderson’s criminal activities were a betrayal of the trust put in him by the Archdiocese and grieving, vulnerable families.
‘We now have systems in place to ensure such instances of fraud cannot happen again.’