They have been arranged with precision and care. Shoulders straightened, arms smoothed, a respectful amount of space between each ‘figure’ allowing air to circulate and cleanliness to be maintained. The meticulous presentation suggests a level of deliberateness, even dignity, in the handling.
Which makes the photograph all the more grotesque. Because this image – of shiny motorcycle leathers hanging on their designated hooks, helmets neatly atop each outfit, lending them a human air – was taken in the same Hull funeral home where, just yards away, actual human bodies had been dumped unceremoniously and left to rot.
What was recorded in those Yorkshire premises was beyond comprehension.
When the crime scene investigators’ counting was over, 35 bodies – entrusted to Legacy Independent Funeral Directors staff by loving families – were found, in various stages of decomposition. One hundred sets of human ashes were bagged up; some had been on the dirty floor for so long the containers they were in had become mouldy and damp.
That floor, unpassable in some places, also contained human excrement and bodily fluids, as well as belongings from the deceased, and copious paperwork. The stench, due in part to the fact that the home’s 40ft fridge had broken, was overpowering.
