Preventing a lawful and decent burial of a dead body is a rather unusual offence at common law in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland.

Shona Jones and Muireann Quigley argued in ‘Preventing lawful and decent burial: resurrecting dead offences’ (2016) Legal Studies 36 (2) 354-374 that there is little justification or need for criminalising the prevention of burial per se, that the historical context of the need to regulate the disposal of corpses is no longer relevant, and that though acts which intentionally impeded the administration of justice are rightly criminal, other offences already deal more appropriately with the mischief addressed by the common law offence. The authors also pointed out that, at the time of writing, R v Hunter, MacKinder and Atkinson [1974] 1 QB 95, [1973] 3 All ER 286 CA appeared to be the first example since the late nineteenth century of a prosecution for the offence.

That article seems to have been prompted by the conviction in 2012 of Hans Kristian Rausing at Isleworth Crown Court for preventing the lawful and decent burial of his wife. He had pleaded guilty and was given a 10-month suspended sentence. The conviction of Rausing aside, however, since R v Hunter in 1974 there appear to have been nine fully-reported cases of the offence in England and Wales: R v Swindell (1981) 3 Cr App R (S) 255; R v Parry and McLean (1986) 8 Cr App R (S) 470; R v Skinner (Patrick and Ian) (1993) 14 Cr App R (S) 115; R v Godward [1998] 1 Cr App R (S) 385;  R v Lang (Jack Thomas) [2001] EWCA Crim 2690, [2002] 2 Cr App R (S) 15;  R v Sullivan (Frank) [2003] EWCA Crim 806, [2003] 2 Cr App R (S) 91; R v Gale (Colin) [2018] EWCA Crim 120; Attorney-General’s Reference (R v Tarbox) [2021] EWCA Crim 224; and R v Russell [2023] EWCA Crim 1080.

In R v Russell, Popplewell LJ explained the rationale of the common law offence as follows, at [24]:

“The offence of preventing a lawful and decent burial, like the similar common law offence of obstructing the coroner in the execution of their duty, is a serious one, which, save in exceptional circumstances, requires a custodial sentence. The harm involved usually includes the indignity and degradation caused to the deceased; the misery caused to the deceased’s family and friends, resulting from anxiety whilst the person is missing, subsequent knowledge of the degrading circumstances following death, and the impact on the ability to have a decent funeral and burial; risks to health; and the prevention of an appropriate and timely investigation into the circumstances and cause of death. The offence involves a serious affront to public standards of decency.”

Update: On 10 April, ITV News reported that Egle Zilinskaite had pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to two counts of concealing the birth of a child and two counts of preventing their decent burial; the offences took place in Bridgend. Her former partner, Zilvinas Ledovskis, pleaded not guilty to the four charges and will face trial in November. Both were released on conditional bail.