A MUM was forced to collect her stillborn baby at 3am from a funeral director’s sofa – finding her “deteriorated” because she wasn’t put in a cold cot.
Cody Townend trusted Amie Upton to take care of her stillborn baby Marie after she gave birth at a hospital in Leeds.
Cody Townend tragically gave birth to a stillborn at St James’s Hospital in Leeds[/caption]
Funeral director Amie Upton has been banned from NHS maternity wards and mortuaries in Leeds[/caption]
She had heard glowing reviews about the 38-year-old and believed Marie was taken to a funeral parlour.
Shockingly, Upton took the baby to her own home five miles away instead.
Another mum, Zoe Ward, was left “screaming” in horror after she walked in on Upton with her dead son and Marie’s body in front of the TV in her living room.
Zoe, 32, gave birth to Bleu at Leeds General Infirmary in 2021 but he died of brain damage when he was three weeks old.
She contacted Upton’s organisation Florrie’s Army to arrange his funeral, following a recommendation by a family friend.
The mum said she spoke to Upton and believed the service sounded “brilliant”.
Bleu’s body was picked up from the hospital by someone on behalf of Florrie’s Army, according to Zoe.
She added she had thought her son would be in a “professional setting”.
But when she went round the following day, Zoe was “terrified” to see Upton “watching cartoons” with her son’s body next to her in the living room in a baby bouncer, and Cody’s daughter on the sofa.
Cody was forced to collect Marie’s body from the house.
She posted on Facebook: “I saw [Marie] the day after she got out of hospital, I never got to see her after. Then taking our baby to her home, the only house my baby should have been to was my own.
“I never got any final moments with my child, she promised me days and days after I could see her.
“We had to collect her at 3am. I got there…my dead child was laid on her sofa like it’s a normal behaviour.
“She didn’t store her in a cold cot and she deteriorated. I couldn’t see my first and only baby that way, that’s not how I wanted to remember her.
“I have not denied she was amazing in the hospital because she was. It was when she took my child from the hospital morgue.
“So Amie Upton, I was grateful for what you did in the hospital but not for what you did to me, my family and my poor innocent child.”
The couple had agreed to let Florrie’s Army take their daughter as Upton had led them to believe the body was being kept at a funeral parlour in Headingley, until the day of the burial.
After more than a week, though, Upton told them their daughter was at her house, five miles away from where they had expected her to be.
The couple said they do not know how long their daughter’s body had been kept at Upton’s home, but believe it had not been kept at the correct temperature, saying it was “really smelly, like she’d been in there and not kept cool”.
Upton is thought to have had a cold cot, fitted with electrical cooling pads in order to maintain lower temperatures, which she uses at her home and also lends out to families.
But the BBC said she didn’t always use it.
Cody said that when they realised their baby was in Upton’s house they drove across Leeds to bring her home and take her to another funeral director.
The mum said the situation was “crazy” and added that if she had told someone the story of what happened they would think it was like a “horror film”.
Mum Zoe recounted her horror experience to the BBC: “I realised it were Bleu and [Upton] says: ‘Come in, we’re watching PJ Masks.’
“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’.”
Zoe’s mum then organised for another funeral director to collect Bleu’s body and he was taken out of Ms Upton’s care.
Zoe said: “I didn’t want him in that house,” adding she had been left “upset and angry” following the “weird” experience.
Upton, 38, has now been banned from NHS maternity wards and mortuaries in Leeds.
She has claimed she had only ever had two complaints in her eight years of running Florrie’s Army, her baby loss support and funeral service.
In England and Wales, the funeral industry in unregulated and there are no legal requirements regarding how and where bodies should be stored.
No qualifications are needed to set up as a funeral director.
The two main trade organisations, the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) and the National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF), follow a joint code of conduct, which states members must undergo regular inspections of their premises and procedures.
Bodies should be kept in a clean and clinical environment at a temperature between 4-7C, according to best practice.
Membership is voluntary though and Ms Upton is not a member of either organisation.
West Yorkshire Police confirmed it had investigated two reports about Ms Upton’s funeral services since 2021, but added that following “extensive enquiries… no potential crimes were identified”.
A spokesperson for the force said: “Since 2021, we have received two reports alleging improper care provided by an infant funeral service in Harehills, Leeds.
“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.”
Responding to the BBC, Upton said she had only had two complaints in the eight years since Florrie’s Army had been established.
A government spokesperson said: “Our thoughts remain with the grieving families affected by this awful situation.
“They rightly expected their children to be treated with dignity and respect.
“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.”
What did the hospital say?
Rabina Tindale, Chief Nurse at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Over the past few years we have received several serious concerns about services provided by Amie Upton.
“Given these concerns, and the fact that some families have believed services are linked to or supported by the Trust, we must be clear that neither Amie Upton or Florrie’s Army is endorsed by, or associated with, Leeds Teaching Hospitals.
“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 Amie’s attendance when visiting deceased patients at the mortuary in her funeral service role.
“Any visitors to the mortuary are always accompanied by mortuary staff.
“Any handover of a body is undertaken in line with Trust policies and procedures and takes place to an authorised funeral director.
“Actions were further strengthened this year, including Amie no longer being allowed to be present in our Maternity services unless as a patient herself.
“Over the past few years, our concerns have been raised with the police, external safeguarding services and relevant regulators.
“We support bereaved families during their most difficult times through tailored, compassionate and regulated services.
“We have dedicated staff, including bereavement midwives and nurses, who provide personalised support for bereaved mothers and their families.
“They always respect each family’s individual needs and wishes.”