Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

Jade Munro took a deep breath before she started reading her statement.

She quickly becomes upset as she starts speaking. Bush appears to look down when she mentions him by name in her statement several times.

"We've been to hell and back," the daughter tells the court.

Eleanor Maslin
BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

Jade Munro tells the court she has felt "nothing but distress, mental torture, heartache and pain" since she was told the body of her father, Tony Munro, was still at Legacy.

She says: "I have had to take time off work because I just couldn't deal with the thought of dad just being left and forgotten.

"I have had to have counselling just to start to come to terms with it.

"I always thought that I could trust a funeral director."

Munro adds that she has "lost faith in the whole funeral business".

She tells the court: "It angers me that there are no regulations in the funeral business.

"It is clear that such a lucrative business should have checks and balances and I just don't understand why there isn't and this situation is allowed to happen."

Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

Lots of people have mentioned in court that Bush would say "bless you" or "god bless" when he spoke to bereaved families and quite a few have said in their statements that they can't bear to hear the words any more.

They have said that just hearing people use those words brings back the trauma they have gone through and the memories they are still haunted by.

Legacy funeral directors were used by many people in the Hessle Road area of Hull.

Several people have spoken in court about how hard they've found it having to continue to see the building since they found out what happened to their loved ones there.

Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

Amy Leach, the granddaughter of victim Audrey Leach, says her family had to wait to receive life insurance before they could pay Bush.

She says ashes were handed to her family in a black Legacy gift bag, and that Bush said remnants of photos cremated with her grandmother were in the bag too.

The family later found out from police their grandmother's ashes weren't in the bag they received.

Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

Amy Leach is the first person this afternoon to give her statement in person.

She is very upset as she stands up to talk.

Her grandmother, Audrey Leach, died in November 2023 and the family paid Legacy for a cremation and funeral.

She says: "What if the initial cremation had gone ahead? We would never know if we were getting a person back or if we’d been conned with a handful of gravel."

As she speaks about the huge impact on her whole family, she seems to be looking to the back of the court where Bush is sitting.

She says: "We wish someone would do to him what he's done to us."

Leach adds: "Even if he grovelled on his knees, it wouldn't be good enough."

Sarah-May Buccieri
Reporting from Hull

Natalie Smith's grandfather was one of the bodies found at Legacy.

He had been there for 11 months and was 95 when he died, with a funeral held for him before they found out his body was still at the site.

Natalie says: "At first I think I thought it was a little bit of a joke.

"Within an hour of my mum calling police, they turned up and gave her the news that they believed he was one of the 30 that had been found."

The family had been given ashes, which they had been put into lockets, but they turned out to not be the ashes of Smith's grandfather.

Smith said seeing Bush today felt like "a little bit of justice to have him among us, to not just escape through a back door".

She adds: "Robert Bush got to just hide everything and lie, and got to get away with it for so long."

Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

Sarah Gray, the daughter of victim Terence Buck, is now having her statement read out by a lawyer.

She says she returned the ashes she had been given back to police as she couldn't bear to have them in her own home anymore

The ashes she believed were her father's had been kept in her bedroom.

Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

We've been hearing from friends and family of Legacy victims for several hours now and some things have been mentioned repeatedly.

One is the guilt that family members have over choosing to use Legacy, another is the huge impact on people's mental health.

Another topic which keeps coming up is that people lied to by Bush have struggled to trust people since they found out what had happened.

Families have had to go through a second funeral and several have said that they found themselves questioning whether that funeral was legitimate.

Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

Banyard's victim impact statement mentions Bush several times.

Bush “had been seen as a pinnacle of the community,” Banyard says.

“The fraud and deception that was perpetrated by Mr Bush has had a profound impact on my mental health,” Banyard adds.

Bush continues to stare ahead although he blinks rapidly several times, as if he is listening and taking things in.

Bayard says he is “now at the stage where I would like to sit and have a civil conversation with Bush to ask him why… To see if there were any mitigating circumstances.”

Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

A lawyer is reading out the statement of John Banyard - a friend of victim John Carlill.

Banyard went to see Carlill at Legacy's premises but was told by Robert Bush his friend "didn't look good" so the lid of the casket was kept down.

The friend only told his family Carlill was involved in a Legacy case a few weeks ago.

He describes Bush as the "lowest of the low".

"If you can’t trust a funeral undertaker, who can you trust? How can someone be so callous, cold and calculated?"

Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

The court has heard impact statements from numerous victims of Robert Bush now.

Some statements have been read out by lawyers representing the families and others by relatives themselves. Many have spoken about how they are still haunted by what Bush did.

They have spoken of having nightmares and the ongoing impact on their mental health.

They have also pointed out that they had to go through two funerals for their loved ones, when one is hard enough.

Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

An announcement has been made that we can go back into court now so everyone is gathering outside again.

Lots of people came out in the break sighing and grimacing at each other.

Even lawyers and journalists who have to listen to awful things regularly are acknowledging this is all difficult to listen to.

Eleanor Maslin
BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

As a reminder, we've been hearing victim impact statements from the families affected by Robert Bush's crimes at Hull Crown Court.

Debbie Keeting told the court she was the "devoted carer" of Mark Hotham and although not related through blood, saw him as her grandfather.

She says: "No words can express how it feels to find out that someone you love so deeply was treated this way after death.

"I feel a terrible sense of guilt, as though I failed him-despite doing everything I could to honour his wishes."

She says she had cared for the ashes she was given - which turned out to not be Mark's.

"I would talk to them and even set them at the Christmas dinner table with a cracker hat on them.

"I felt like he was still with me and it kept me going.

"All the time my grandad was rotting in that place. It just makes me feel sick."

Eleanor Maslin
BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

Nigel Hotham told the court he had used Legacy for his 87-year-old uncle's funeral when he died in September 2023.

He says his world "fell apart" and he "felt sick" when he found out his uncle, Mark Hotham, was believed to be one of the bodies at Legacy.

"Mark had been abused as a child when he was evacuated during wartime which had resulted in his deafness.

"Now it felt he was being abused again at the end of his life."

He adds: "I am so angry that such a sweet man could be just left.

"I can't forgive him and don't think I ever will. One mistake is perhaps forgivable but to mistreat so many people is a huge betrayal."

Eleanor Maslin
BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

Before the court took a short break, we heard a statement from Jayne Rimmington.

As explained earlier, she had used Legacy after the death of her mother, Shirley Wright, but later found out that another deceased person's property had been placed with her when her body was recovered.

"So many thoughts ran around my head," she told the court.

She said: "I was told that a photograph of dogs was recovered with mum.

"This both shocked and upset me. Mum didn't have any dogs, she didn't even like them and we had not left any photographs with her."

She said she feels "so much guilt for choosing Robert Bush and Legacy".

"You should be able to trust a funeral director. We did.

"Now I have questions of doubt about all funeral directors. I hope that there are regulations that come from all of this."

Former funeral director Robert Bush is in court in Hull for the first day of his sentencing hearing having pleaded guilty to 67 offences including preventing the burials of 30 people and admitting to giving families the wrong ashes.

Today, Hull Crown Court is hearing family statements from the families of those affected. The sentencing is expected to last at least five days.

As he arrived this morning with his face covered, Bush told reporters he was “sorry", but families say they are appalled he apologised to the journalists, but not to them.

It’s been an emotional morning in court, with family members comforting one another on the benches as the harrowing family statements have been read out.

Byron Lill spoke about the guilt he felt about his mother.

"She protected us our whole lives and I couldn't repay her," he said.

In another statement, from Christina George about her brother Raymond Dagnall, she said she thought she had scattered his ashes at Bridlington Harbour, as per her brother’s wishes.

She told the court the discovery had made “me feel sick and the hairs prickle on the back of my neck”.

The court is on a break for lunch at the moment. We will be continuing to bring you the family statements throughout the afternoon.

Eleanor Maslin
BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

"My sister wasn't just a body, she was a loved family member," the court heard in a statement read on behalf of Sandra Spamer.

Her sister Maureen Graham died in August 2024, and Spamer said she was left "completely shattered" to find out she had still not been cremated seven months later.

Spamer says she was told by Legacy that the cremation had taken place and that her son even received some ashes.

The statement reads: "Instead of remembering my sister with fond memories, I am left with distressing thoughts about how she was treated.

"It upsets me greatly that Maureen was not treated with the dignity and respect that everybody deserves.

"I feel angry, heartbroken and a deep sense of injustice that a man in a trusted position would do this to families for his own gain."

Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

After hearing a number of victim impact statements this morning, the judge tells the court we will break now until 2pm.

Bush has been sent away and family members are leaving court.

We'll continue to recap the key lines from the courtroom before it took its break.

Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

13:50 BST: This post was updated to correct the names of those involved.

The daughter of Shirley Wright sounds upset and angry as she says what Bush did was "evil".

Jayne Rimmington is another family member who has spoken of the guilt they feel now at having used Legacy Independent Funeral Directors.

“The thought of mum laying there all this time, almost six months. Horrific pictures came into my mind of what she would look like, and they wouldn't go away. They still don't,” she says.

Rimmington adds: “Even when I collected what I believed to be mum’s ashes, I trusted him, I believed his excuses."

She says: “I accepted what he said, I trusted him. He stood there smiling, handing me the box, when she was still laying there, rotting away.”

Several people today say they feel they have let their loved ones down, which has added to the grief and shock they feel about what they've had to go through.

Rimmington says a collection for Cancer Research was done at her mum’s funeral, but the charity says it never received the money.

“We feel so cheated that they never received it,” she tells the court.

Jessica Lane
Reporting from Hull Crown Court

Bush seems to be looking at Vicky Mitchell as she speaks in court.

She has been incredibly upset and has had to pause several times. Lots of family members are being supported as they stand up in court and speak about what's happened to them.

Some family members have come to court today to read out their own statements while others have had theirs read out by lawyers here.

The family members speaking have been getting overwhelmed by emotion at times and people listening in court have been crying.

But hearing the stories read out by the lawyers are just as emotional for everyone listening. Each story is devastating and sad