Overview
- The solicitor general referred the prison terms for Richard Elkin and Hayley Bell to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
- Elkin and Bell were jailed for four years in February after convictions for causing a public nuisance, preventing a lawful and decent burial, and fraudulent trading, with extra offences for Elkin involving a forged document and pepper spray.
- Trial evidence showed 46 bodies were kept in an unrefrigerated room for weeks, with bailiffs reporting maggots and storage temperatures as high as 15C instead of the expected 4C.
- One family learned that 87-year-old William Mitchell’s body had decomposed for 36 days while they believed he had been cremated, a shock that typified the lasting distress described in court.
- Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage pressed for the review after families said the punishment felt too light, and the case is fueling wider calls for tighter rules on funeral providers.