Ellen Bown said Co-op Funeralcare showed a blatant ‘disrespect of the deceased’ at its Windsor funeral home
Dead bodies were left to rot outside of cold storage by Britain’s biggest funeral home during a heatwave.
While grieving families assumed that their relative’s remains were properly stored in fridges, some were allowed to decompose for weeks in the back of a Co-op Funeralcare branch.
Whistleblower Ellen Bown spoke out to expose what she describes as the company’s blatant ‘disrespect of the deceased’ at the Windsor funeral home.
She claims that a lack of staff caused a backlog of funerals, meaning bodies were stored in the branch for long periods in temperatures of up to 25C (77F).
She told of one incident in which maggots were found in a coffin, and another in which a cardboard coffin deteriorated because of leaking bodily fluids.
The firm, which has more than 900 branches, admitted to storing one body in the Windsor branch for 20 days during a heatwave where temperatures in the area peaked at 34.5C (94F) in July. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recommends that bodies being held for 48 hours or more should be stored at 5C (41F) or less.
It also confirmed a case of maggots being reported in the body of another during the same period.
While the Co-op’s Windsor branch could book and arrange funerals, it did not have its own cold storage facilities.
Bodies were supposed to be stored at the facilities in the nearby Slough branch and only brought back to Windsor for viewings and just before funerals.
However, Miss Bown, 48, said this did not happen, with bodies being left in Windsor for weeks.
She said: ‘They had nowhere to put the bodies in Slough as the storage was full, so they would bring them to Windsor long before the funeral.
‘Really this should only have been done for viewings or just one day before the funeral. Yet we had bodies in our holding area for weeks. The room would sometimes get as hot as 25C (77F), kept in those conditions it is impossible to preserve the body. Because of that some families were unable to view their relatives.’
Ms Bown blamed a lack of staff and a backlog of funerals for the problems at the Windsor branch (pictured)
She said that one man, Simon Jeffrey, 35, ‘went black’ after being kept in a room for 20 days and his body was so badly decomposed his mother was unable to view him or ‘kiss him goodbye’.
Miss Bown, who had joined the firm in January, complained in July after finding maggots at the branch. She said: ‘I came in one Monday morning and there was a maggot on the carpet and I just knew what it was. I found maggots coming out of one of the coffins … The smell was horrendous. We had to keep the doors at the back open and light candles to try to hide it.’
Co-op said of the incident that a ‘wide range or circumstances’ can ‘impact the overall condition’ of a body, including the cause of death, when the body is found and whether there is a post-mortem examination.
Miss Bown also claimed that storage problems were the result of funerals being delayed for up to five weeks because of issues with staffing.
Co-op said the average waiting time for funerals earlier this year was over three weeks as the branch faced ‘challenges’, including higher death rates and works at Slough Crematorium. However, Miss Bown said: ‘That was not always the case, it was just we didn’t have the resources to process the funerals.
I found maggots coming out of one of the coffins … The smell was horrendous. We had to keep the doors at the back open and light candles to try to hide it
‘We did not have enough staff or vehicles on the ground yet they would continue booking funerals… They just couldn’t cope.’
She added: ‘It is not right that families have to wait that long, it delays the grieving process.’
Miss Bown also spoke of a horrific incident where a body fell out of a coffin and was left lying on the floor for an hour. ‘By HSE standards we as funeral arrangers are not allowed to move coffins by ourselves but as we were so short-staffed we had to do it.
‘I was moving one lady back to the holding area after a viewing and she slid off the trolley and fell out of the coffin.
‘I had no way of putting her back myself… This poor woman was left lying on the floor for over an hour before someone from another branch came to help me.’
In another case, Miss Bown said a family had asked for personal items to go into a coffin of a father – however these were not put in.
The Co-op said it had contacted both of the families involved in these incidents.
Miss Bown, who has several years of experience in the funeral business, said; ‘I know how things are supposed to be done and this should not be going on.
‘It is being really disrespectful to the deceased and it is not right.’
Co-op said that while Windsor did not have its own cold storage, there were facilities available within a local ‘care centre’ which would be used as appropriate.
Robert Maclachlan, managing director for Co-op, apologised for the standard of care. He said: ‘These allegations suggest that earlier this year, in our Windsor funeral home, we fell short of our own high standards and didn’t always provide the level of care that are expected of us.
‘We are truly sorry for this and we have contacted the families involved to apologise and explain what happened and what we are doing about it.
‘We have already made a number of improvements including investing in better facilities and hiring more colleagues.
‘We will learn from this and do whatever is necessary to ensure our colleagues are supported in providing the very best care for our families.’
The Co-op added it is now in the process of installing adequate facilities at Windsor.
Mother who couldn’t kiss her son goodbye
Sandra Riley was ‘robbed’ of the chance to kiss her son goodbye after his body was left to deteriorate for almost three weeks during a heatwave.
Simon Jeffrey’s body was stored at the Co-op’s Windsor branch – where there were no cold storage facilities – for 20 days during the hottest time of the year, when outside temperatures peaked at 34.5C (94F).
When his mother, who works for the local council, tried to view his body, staff at the branch advised against it as he had deteriorated so badly.
Sandra Riley (left) was ‘robbed’ of the chance to kiss her son Jeffrey (right) goodbye after his body was left to deteriorate for almost three weeks during a heatwave
Mrs Riley, 58, said: ‘I desperately wanted to kiss him goodbye because I hadn’t seen him. I needed to see him so I knew in my heart that it was really him.
‘I just had to kiss his coffin. My poor boy. I can’t believe they just left him like that for days. It is disgusting, I had no idea.’
Mr Jeffrey suddenly died on May 27, the day after his 35th birthday, while his mother was on holiday.
She booked his funeral at her local branch in Windsor using all of her savings for the £4,000 bill, which included embalming, and was given a date of July 6.
‘I was told that Slough Crematorium was having a refit so that was the earliest they could do,’ she said. Mrs Riley said she was told he would be kept in cold storage at Slough after his body was released.
However, he was transported back to the Windsor branch on June 16.
Here the former hotel porter was kept in a room for the next 20 days, during a heatwave, until his funeral. Staff at the Co-op had called Mrs Riley on June 16 informing her that he was deteriorating and that she should view him soon.
The mother-of-three said: ‘I couldn’t make it that day as I had an appointment but I went in as soon as I could a few days later.
‘When I went in they told me I shouldn’t see him as he had gone black.’
Ellen Bown, who was working in the branch at the time, said Mr Jeffrey had not been stored properly.
She said: ‘He was stored in the room in the heat … he went black. The family wasn’t able to view him because he was so badly decomposed. He should have been viewable had he been stored properly.’
Mrs Riley added: ‘We trust these people and they’ve robbed me of my closure.’