Warning: This article contains discussion of baby loss which some readers may find distressing.
The funeral director who has faced huge backlash online after allegedly keeping a dead baby's body in her home, suffered a tragic loss of her own.
Amie Upton hit headlines after the mother of deceased infant visited her home in Leeds, only to discover that the three-week-old had been left in a bouncer with cartoons on the TV, with another baby left on the sofa.
Zoe Ward was left shocked by the sight of her baby Bleu, and immediately alerted the authorities after removing him from the care of Upton, who runs the baby loss support and funeral service, Florrie's Army.
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Although the 38-year-old maintains that she has done nothing wrong, she has subsequently been barred from NHS maternity wards and mortuaries in Leeds, with another mother coming forward to describe the horror-like scenes she claims she saw in Upton's house when she was asked to come and collect her child at 3am.
You are not legally required to have any qualifications to become a funeral director in the UK, which has left many wondering why Upton entered the line of business, but it turns out she has a heartbreaking reason for doing so.
Back in 2017, Upton's baby Florence was stillborn, in the aftermath of a brutal attack by the baby's father Shaun Birchall.
She was left in a coma after Birchall unexpectedly rammed a child's buggy into her on a number of occasions, which ruptured her amniotic sac, after which she lost her child.
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Birchall was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of grievous bodily harm, with the judge saying: "She was 17 weeks pregnant at the time and the impact caused the rupture of the amniotic sac. There is a considerable difficulty in determining exactly the consequences of that fact.
"It is beyond doubt that the rupture of the amniotic sac would on any view have caused serious consequences to the pregnancy. Whether it is in fact causative of death and, if so, to what degree are questions of very great complexity.
"As I have indicated, it is undoubtedly the case that Miss Upton will believe to her dying day that it was a contributory factor and I accept that she may well be right about that, but I can only sentence on evidence, not on feeling, and on evidence of which I have to be sure and the medical evidence is such that, although of course I see that it may well have been a factor, I simply cannot say that I can be certain to the required degree that it was.
"But I remind myself again that this is not a case of child destruction and it may well be that what Miss Upton has thought and no doubt thought carefully about, about whether there should be a change to the law in that regard, it may well be something that needs to be looked at or would be looked at.
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"I express no particular view about that other than to understand entirely why Miss Upton has undertaken the research and gained the support that she has to have the issue looked at.
"But on any view this was serious injury to Miss Upton herself and the consequences of it to Florrie, whether causative of death or not, were themselves of extreme seriousness."
Following the case, Amie campaigned for a change in the law, launching a petition which stated: "The aim of this petition is to create a law separate to Abortion Law to change the way a foetus beyond 24 weeks is perceived in a court of law after an unlawful killing of that foetus has taken place."
Although she had sought a longer sentence for her ex-partner, there have been no changes to the law in the years since, and the Mirror reports that he was released from prison after serving his sentence.
Upton declined to comment when approached by LADbible.
Topics: Crime
James Moorhouse