Robert Bush: Former funeral director ‘breached trust on industrial scale’

Bush, who lives in Otley, West Yorkshire, was arrested days later when he landed at Heathrow Airport.

He told his daughter, who was with her, that she “didn’t know” what had happened and said, “I fooled everyone.”

Most of the bodies found at the Hessley Road yard were “over 60s” and six were awaiting cremation.

One of the bodies has been there for a year.

Hundreds of victim impact statements are expected to be read throughout the week.

The first comes from Karen King, whose body was found 10 months after the death of her father, Norman Bridger, who describes how she made lockets containing the ashes given to her and her mother by Bush.

“I feel violated now that I have the ashes of a stranger so close to me,” she wrote.

Catherine Howard, who used the Legacy after her 73-year-old partner Jonathan Butler died, told the court her “world fell apart again” when she discovered his body had been put there.

An apology is “not enough for me,” she said, and wanted Bush to know that she “will never get out of here.”