Undertakers had baby cremated in OAP's coffin to cover up blunder

12 April 2012

Tragic: The baby's empty grave

The cortege was already on its way to the cemetery when the mistake was discovered.

Instead of halting the funeral they let it go ahead and left a grieving family to spend years visiting an empty grave.

Graeme Skidmore and Mark Eshelby covered up their mistake, which was only revealed when an investigation was launched into the funeral service.

After admitting conspiring to prevent a proper burial of a body, the pair were given 18-month prison sentences suspended for two years and each fined £5,000.

They were told by the Judge Paul Hoffman at York Crown Court: You leave the dock as shamed men; men who are forever tainted by the scandalous nature of what you did.

Wherever you go and whatever you seek, men will despise you and revile you and point you out as the men who did this and you will deserve all of that.'

Skidmore, 44, and Eshelby, 48, lost their jobs over the scandal and the court heard they would be unemployable in the undertaking business.

The judge told them that the circumstances of the case were unique and they had caused unimaginable grief' to the families involved.

The crime was revealed earlier this year, nine years after Benjamin Judson died within 20 minutes of being born prematurely on December 18, 1998. Evelyn Sayner, 85, had died from gastroenteritis and kidney failure four days later.

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Mark Eshelby (left) and Graeme Skidmore panicked when they realised they had failed to put baby Benjamin Judson's body in the coffin

Both bodies were taken to the Co- Operative Funeral Services chapel of rest in Cromwell Road, York, where Eshelby was assistant manager and Skidmore was area manager. Mrs Sayner was to be cremated on New Year's Eve and Benjamin was to be buried the same day.

Simon Kealey, prosecuting, said that the forms for the burial and cremation had been properly completed and the cortege for Benjamin's funeral had already set off when Emma Barnes, a junior employee at the funeral home, made a shock discovery.

For some reason she looked in the baby temporary transportation coffin which had brought Benjamin's body from York District Hospital.

She noticed that the body was still inside and the cortege had departed without it,' said Mr Kealey. She ran upstairs and told Skidmore, who went to find Eshelby and they both went to the mortuary.

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Mr and Mrs Judson: at least grateful for the guilty pleas

The undertakers decided not to halt Benjamin's funeral but instead decided to conceal their terrible mistake'. Mr Kealey said that Miss Barnes went into the mortuary and found both men standing over Mrs Sayner's coffin.

Skidmore's hands were in the coffin and he had the body of Benjamin,' he said. He placed it between her legs because this was the best place to conceal it from the crematorium operator.'

Both men looked up as Miss Barnes walked into the mortuary and they told her not to mention the incident again.

The cremation of both bodies took place that afternoon at York Crematorium and Benjamin's family buried an empty coffin in Fulford Cemetery, York. Mr Kealey said that both men knew what they had done was unlawful and tried to conceal their mistake by altering documentation.

Eventually Miss Barnes told another employee what had happened and earlier this year the police were called in. When Benjamin's coffin was exhumed it was found to be empty.

After his arrest Skidmore, from Dunbar, Scotland, tried to blame another employee, a casual driver, for suggesting how the baby's body should be disposed of.

We all agreed it was probably the safest and best thing to do,' he told police, adding: It was probably the worst decision of my life.'

Eshelby, from Londonderry, North Yorkshire, told police he could not remember the incident. The court was told that the tragedy was made worse for Benjamin's parents, David and Paula Judson, because they regularly visited his grave' and that of another son buried next to it.

In court representatives of the two men apologised to the families.

Both men were told they would be jailed for three months if they did not pay their fines.

A spokesman for the Judson family said: Benjamin's death was clearly a tragic event. It's now clear that the arrangements the family made for the burial of Benjamin were not carried out properly, which makes the loss even more distressing.'

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