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 [2023] EWCA Crim 1080, 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 2024, 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.

Update: 31 July 2026. Robert Bush, of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, Hull, was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to 67 charges, including preventing a lawful and decent burial, fraud, fraudulent trading, and theft. The Government responded immediately with a press statement in which the Health and Social Care Secretary, Yvette Cooper, was quoted as follows:

“Robert Bush’s actions were utterly abhorrent, and my thoughts are with all the bereaved families in Hull who have been so badly let down. In the wake of this horrific case, we will now bring forward comprehensive proposals to ensure respect and dignity for the deceased in every setting, including proper regulation of the funeral sector. We are determined to drive rogue operators out of this industry, and protect other families from suffering this same heartache”.

Of the 67 charges to which Bush pleaded guilty, counts 1-30 related to preventing a lawful and decent burial. In his sentencing remarks, Hilliard J observed that “there are no sentencing guidelines for these offences; no analogous guidelines which might help; and no case decided by the Court of Appeal which is factually similar, although some assistance can be derived from the case of R v Russell [2023] EWCA Crim 1080″; v supra.

Hilliard J stated:

“[2] …unless a body was one of those actually recovered by the police from Legacy in 2024 and thus properly identified, no one who had a cremation with Legacy at any time can actually know for certain whether they received the ashes of their loved one, whether or not their case features in the indictment.”

“[11] It is not always clear which deceased person was even in the coffin at the time of what purported to be their funeral service at Legacy…”.

In exploring “How did he get away with it?”, he said [emphasis added]:

“[8] …there were no checks over many years of the way in which he conducted his business. There was no oversight at all, for example, of the conditions in which the deceased were kept in his premises. A single visit might have been enough to bring some of what he was doing to a halt…

[9].The proper procedures under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 do not, on the information I have been provided with, appear to have been followed…I was told by Hull City Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council that in their view it is not clear whether this would have changed the outcome of this case.

Update: On 3 August 2026, Christopher Phillips, who had previously pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful and decent burial of his mother Silvia Phillips by keeping her body in a freezer at their home in Porthcawl, and to two counts of benefit fraud by failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions and Bridgend County Borough Council that his mother had died, was sentenced at Merthyr Crown Court to two years and four months’ imprisonment.