Coffin in funeral scandal ‘engulfed in black mould’

A VICTIM of the Hull funeral home scandal has described how his grandmother’s coffin was spattered with blood and covered in thick black mould.

Tristan Essex, 24, took ashes home from Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in the city after being told they were those of Jessie Stockdale, a relative he had cared for for seven years.

But when Humberside Police said last month it had recovered 35 bodies from the funeral parlour and some unidentified ashes, he called a helpline that had been set up for potential victims.

Officers informed him that they believed his grandmother’s body was still in the funeral home – meaning the ashes on his fireplace next to her handbag might be those of someone else.

He told BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 documentary series: “It felt like my heart had dropped into my stomach. We’d said it must be wrong, the ashes are there on the fireplace, they’re just sat right there.

“I’ve been talking to them as if it was my grandma and we don’t even know who’s in this ashes box.”

Mr Essex, from Hull, recalled how he had visited Legacy’s premises when his grandmother died and was taken aback by “such an unpleasant smell”, which he assumed was normal.

He told the show: “When I saw the coffin my heart just stopped, he’d made no efforts at making her presentable – just seeing how her hair’s just wet, her face didn’t look the same, she looked so uncomfortable.

“Her head just tilted forward, her fingers had gone black, the entire coffin was just engulfed in a black thick mould.

“Her coffin looked as if it had been submerged in water and it had actually soaked up the moisture.”

He added: “Then on the frills of the coffin there was blood just splayed, clearly for everyone to see.”

Mr Essex said after being contacted by police, he offered the ashes back to them, but officers told him to keep them until they have more information. DNA tests on the body are ongoing.

A man, 46, and a woman, 23, remain on bail after being arrested on suspicion of prevention of a lawful and decent burial, fraud by false representation and fraud by abuse of position.

The scandal is set to cost taxpayers up to £2million, as Hull and East Riding councils have been given funding to cover issues such as second funerals.

Legacy Independent Funerals Ltd has been contacted for comment.

‘Her head just tilted forward, her fingers had gone black ... on the frills of the coffin there was blood’