Anybody can set themselves up as a funeral director and keep dead bodies in their garage, the chairman of an inquiry set up following the crimes of ‘morgue monster’ David Fuller has warned.
Sir Jonathan Michael called for tighter regulation of the funeral services sector, saying people are ‘shocked’ to find out they are unchecked.
He is investigating how the dead are looked after around the country after necrophiliac killer David Fuller spent 15 years creeping into mortuaries and filming himself abusing the bodies of at least 101 women and girls.
Sir Jonathan said: ‘We need a regulatory regime that will not tolerate any form of abuse or any practices that compromise the security and dignity of the deceased.
‘The funeral directors I have met in conducting this inquiry have been caring and professional. However, sadly, there are exceptions.’
He added: ‘The fact is that anyone can set themselves up as a funeral director. They could do it from their home and keep the bodies of the deceased in their garage without anybody being able to stop them.
‘That cannot be right.’
Sir Jonathan said the new report comes following the ‘distressing’ reports of neglect in the funeral care sector, as police are investigating allegations against a funeral directors in Hull.
Humberside Police said detectives had been working ‘around the clock’ since concerns were raised at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors on March 8 ‘about the storage and management processes relating to care of the deceased at the funeral directors’.
The independent inquiry into Fuller’s crimes is reviewing how the dead are looked after in the second phase of its investigation, in settings including private mortuaries, private ambulances and the funeral sector.
The Government first launched the independent inquiry in 2021 after Fuller sexually abused the bodies of at least 101 women and girls aged between nine and 100 while employed at the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, in Pembury, between 2005 and 2020.
The first phase of the inquiry, looking at his employer, the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, found the former maintenance worker was able to offend for 15 years without being caught due to ‘serious failings’ at the hospitals he worked at.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
