Funeral director kept body of baby in her living room 'watching cartoons in a bouncer'
A funeral director has been accused of taking babies' bodies home with her after allegedly putting a dead infant in a baby bouncer in front of her TV.
The Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust said it banned Amie Upton, 38, from its mortuaries and maternity wards earlier this year.
Zoe Ward, a 32-year-old mum, said she discovered her dead son in a bouncer 'watching cartoons' in Ms Upton's sitting room, the BBC reports.
She has claimed that Upton - who runs funeral service Florrie's Army - allegedly was in possession of the corpse of her three-week-old baby, Bleu. Her son died of brain damage at Leeds General Infirmary in 2021.
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Ward said to the outlet that she was told that Bleu was supposed to be kept in a 'professional setting', and when she went to visit the next day, she was left 'screaming'.
"I realised it were Bleu and she [Upton] says: 'Come in, we're watching PJ Masks'," she said.
"There's a cat scratcher in the corner and I can hear a dog barking and there was another [dead] baby on the sofa. It wasn't a nice sight.
"I rang my mum and I'm saying, 'This ain't right'… I was screaming down the phone [saying]: 'It's mucky, it's dirty, he can't stay here.'
"I didn't want him in that house," Ward - who decided to remove Bleu from Upton's care - said.
It comes after Sharon and Paul (pseudonyms) agreed to send the corpse of their stillborn to Florrie's earlier this year.
They alleged that Upton agreed to take the body to a funeral parlour in Headingley until it was buried. However, the couple insisted that Upton told them their daughter was at her house, five miles away.
"I just didn't know why she was there," said Sharon.
She claims their baby was kept at an incorrect temperature, and that it was 'really smelly, like she'd been in there and not kept cool'.
After releasing what had gone on, they returned the baby to Leeds and transferred her to another funeral director.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust said: "When we first became aware of concerns, we implemented extra steps in our mortuary services on top of our already robust measures.
"Since 2021 we have had specific safeguarding measures in place, including monitoring [Ms Upton's] attendance when visiting deceased patients at the mortuary in her funeral service role."
West Yorkshire Police told LADbible that two incidents were reported in 2021 and in both cases, 'no potential crimes were identified'.
“Since 2021, we have received two reports alleging improper care provided by an infant funeral service in Harehills, Leeds,” they said.
“Detectives made extensive enquiries into both reports, exploring multiple legislative and regulatory avenues, including liaison with partners, to establish whether there were any criminal matters to investigate. No potential crimes were identified.
“We recognise the concerns raised by these two families will have added to the distress they felt during an already incredibly difficult time. Our thoughts remain with them.”
Given the lack of regulation in the UK funeral industry, a government spokesperson promised: "We are committed to taking action to ensure the highest standards are always met by funeral directors and are now considering the full range of options to improve standards."
Meanwhile, Upton said she only had two complaints in her eight years of service.
LADbible Group has contacted Amie Upton and Florrie's Army for comment.
Anish Vij