Pensioner had mother-in-law cremated in ‘secret’ funeral

A PENSIONER secretly cremated his mother-in-law without telling his estranged wife, a court heard.

Ian Culley, 75, claimed it was Ilva Glazier’s last wish that hardly any of her family, including her daughter Sonia, were to know about her death.

He signed forms for funeral directors that stated all Mrs Glazier’s relatives and executors had been informed of the impending cremation, which enabled it to go ahead.

However, two of her daughters and her eight great-grandchildren had no idea she had been ill and only found out she had died some months after her remains were cremated.

When relatives complained to the authorities, Culley was charged with making a false representation with a view to procuring the burning of human remains under the Cremation Act 1902. The act was brought in to regulate cremations – until then they were illegal and only burials were permitted.

Offenders face jail terms of up to two years but Culley, who has prostate cancer and is profoundly deaf, was given a three-month suspended prison sentence after he pleaded guilty at Bournemouth Crown Court.

The court heard Culley had allowed his mother-in-law, Ilva Glazier, to stay at his home in Bournemouth during the last months of her life and when she became ill.

He had been married to her daughter Sonia for 30 years but the couple had spent most of that time separated.

The court heard that Culley had not benefited financially from the cremation and the judge said there was nothing untoward about Mrs Glazier’s death on May 8 last year. She had been cremated two days later.

Edward Elton, representing Culley, said: “He carried out Ilva Glazier’s wishes – he did what he thought was the right thing.” He added there were family difficulties and Mrs Glazier had not wanted the rest of her family to know about her death.

Prosecutions under the 1902 Cremation Act are extremely rare, although in May 2015 a mother was jailed for four months at Stoke Crown Court for forging her dead son’s cremation certificate to prevent the boy’s father from attending the funeral.