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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
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Coffin bungle pair get sentences cut |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Wednesday, 02 July 2008 |
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By Helen Gabriel
UK - Two bungling funeral bosses from York who hid the body of a dead baby in an elderly woman’s coffin have had their sentences slashed. Mark Eshelby and Graeme Skidmore, former colleagues at Co-operative Funeral Services in Cromwell Road, were both sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and fined £5,000 each, at York Crown Court last June after admitting conspiring to prevent a proper burial.
But now three top judges have quashed their fines and halved their sentences to just nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for one year.
Skidmore had so far paid £1,200, while Eshelby had put himself in debt to pay the fine in full – but they will both get their money back after the decision by Lord Justice Hooper, Mr Justice Silber and Mr Justice Underhill at the Court of Appeal in London yesterday.
Eshelby, 49, of Malvern Avenue, Boroughbridge Road, York, and Skidmore, 46, now of Leslie Way, Dunbar, Scotland, buried the coffin of baby Benjamin Judson, of Holgate, York, empty and then cremated his body alongside that of 85-year-old Evelyn Sayner, of Heworth, York, in a bid to cover up their error.
Benjamin’s grieving parents, David and Paula Judson, visited his grave for nine years before they found out it was empty.
The Press understands neither family can speak out about how they feel about the slashed sentences because of a confidentiality agreement signed when Co-operative Funeral Services paid them compensation last year.
Lord Justice Hooper told how the men “panicked” when they realised they had sent off the funeral procession of baby Benjamin without putting his body in the coffin, on New Year’s Eve, 1998.
In a desperate bid to cover up their mistake, they hid his body in the coffin of 85-year-old grandmother Mrs Sayner, of Heworth, and both bodies were cremated together.
Benjamin’s coffin was exhumed, found to be empty, and the families of both the baby and Mrs Sayner were informed of the “ghastly mistake”, the judge said.
Lawyers representing Skidmore and Eshelby argued the sentences were too severe.
Both had lost their jobs after their crimes came to light and suffered serious financial hardship, the court heard.
Skidmore, who moved to Scotland with his wife and nine-year-old son, has paid £1,200 of his fine, at a rate of £50 a week, but the payments were taking up almost all of his family’s disposable income, the judges were told.
Eshelby, who had already entered into an agreement to sell his house and buy another, managed to pay off the fine in full, but was left with a much greater debt as a consequence of having to take out a credit card loan to fund it.
Lord Justice Hooper said: “In unusual circumstances such as this case, the only relevant purpose of sentencing was to punish the appellants for what they had done – there remains no need to take into account deterrence, reform, rehabilitation or protection.
“What the judge had to do was to choose a suitable sentence to punish them for what they had done and, in so doing, he had to bear in mind that, at their respective ages, they had lost jobs they had done for some time and they would forever in the labour market be restricted in what they could do by what they had done on that fateful day in December 1998.
“In our view, a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, was not necessary to punish these appellants, particularly in light of what had already happened to them and did happen to them in the future. In our view, it was sufficient to pass a sentence of nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for a period of one year.
“We take the view that, having regard to the consequences to these two appellants and to the suspended sentence that was passed on them, that it was neither necessary, nor desirable, to fine, and we quash the fines in their entirety.”
Benjamin Judson died 20 minutes after his birth at York Hospital on December 18, 1998. His death certificate listed his cause of death as “extreme prematurity”.
Mrs Sayner, was an 85-year-old widow when she died of kidney failure and gastroenteritis at the same hospital four days later.
Angry reaction to appeal decision.
THE COVER-UP first came to light when City of York Council launched an investigation into allegations of malpractice by former York Crematorium manager Deborah Kilvington in February 2006.
She then blew the whistle about the empty coffin.
Brian Brock, Ms Kilvington’s trade union representative, said he was shocked to hear Skidmore and Eshelby had had their sentences cut.
He said: “It is absolutely unbelievable. I would imagine the families are not very happy.”
Mr Brock, of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), said: “I find this really sad. I feel for the families because I know what they have been through from the outset.
“I am astounded, because after the sentencing I had people ringing me up to say that the sentences weren’t enough. I’m absolutely gobsmacked they have been cut.
“When all is said and done, they pleaded guilty – but it is as though the courts are now saying ‘Oh well, they weren’t really guilty at all’.”
He said the court case and subsequent appeal would both have been funded with tax-payers’ money.
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Taphophilia Facts
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New York is the permanent home to more former United States Presidents than any other state.
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Quote Repository
“Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.” Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Grave Epigrams
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It is well with me why dost thou weep,
As thou saw thy lov'd one in his last long sleep,
As thou, lingerest to gaze on my dwelling of clay
Forgetting my spirit in his white array. Carlisle, MA 1844 |
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Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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