Fines quashed for pair who hid dead baby in pensioner's coffin

TWO funeral parlour managers fined £5000 over their decision to hide the body of a dead baby in an elderly lady's coffin will get the money back after a decision at the Court of Appeal yesterday.

Graeme Skidmore, 46, of Leslie Way, Dunbar, and Mark Eshelby, 49, of Boroughbridge Road, York, admitted conspiracy to prevent lawful burial of a corpse at York Crown Court last June.

They were sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, and each ordered to pay £5000 in fines.

But today, in a hearing at the Court of Appeal, three top judges quashed their fines and halved their sentences to nine months, suspended for one year.

Giving the court's judgement, Lord Justice Hooper told how the men "panicked" when they realised they had sent off the funeral procession of baby Benjamin Judson without putting his body in the coffin.

They hid his body in the same coffin as 85-year-old grandmother Evelyn Sayner and both bodies were cremated.