Funeral Director to Face Consequences for Baby’s Stillborn Loss

Jasmine Beverley, the mother of a stillborn son, has stated that the funeral director responsible for her child’s burial will face the consequences for his actions. Her son, Sunny Beverley-Conlin, was born stillborn in May 2022, and his funeral was organized by Robert Bush, a staff member at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull. Bush, 48, was found guilty of providing incorrect ashes to grieving families while their loved ones’ remains were stored at his facility for several months.

Admitted to 30 Counts of Legal Breaches

At Hull Crown Court on Thursday, Bush admitted to 30 charges of hindering lawful burials and one count of theft involving 12 charities. However, he could not be charged with the most severe allegations related to Sunny’s case, as the infant passed away before 24 weeks of gestation. Beverley is now pushing for legislative reforms to address such incidents.

“I think as a human being, we are all capable of doing evil things. Our morality stops us from doing that, and what’s blurred his thought process is something he has to live with. He’ll bear the consequences for his actions,” she said.

Beverley and her husband, Ben Conlin, initially expressed concern when they received Sunny’s ashes in the same box used for his arrival. “It was the one we’d had Sunny in originally,” Beverley recounted. “I questioned that and thought surely he would have been put into the cremator in the box, so why is it the same box? My husband noticed a nick in the wood and knew it was the same box.”

Pregnancy Shaken by Discovery of Remains

Police informed Beverley in 2024, during her seventh month of pregnancy, that Sunny’s remains were believed to be found at the Legacy site. “It was very distressing,” she described. “I was losing sleep and feeling so powerless. The thought of what had happened to Sunny happening again to this pregnancy was playing heavily on my mind, and it ruined the last two months of my pregnancy.”

In an earlier court appearance in October 2025, Bush admitted deceiving three other women into believing the ashes he gave them belonged to their unborn children. Beverley emphasized that she refuses to let this scandal overshadow her son’s legacy. “I was able to make his life mean something just by talking about him, by hopefully helping other mothers,” she added.

Investigation and Upcoming Sentence

Humberside Police launched an investigation into the company in March 2024 after a “call of concern for the deceased.” At that time, 35 bodies and ashes of at least 163 individuals were recovered from the Hessle Road site. Bush is set to be sentenced on 27 July for 67 charges, including fraud through false representation and running a business fraudulently, tied to the sale of funeral plans.