A "distraught" woman says she will "never recover" after learning that what she thought were her unborn baby's ashes were actually animal remains. Lucy Ness, 28, put her trust in funeral director Robert Bush after suffering a miscarriage days before her 12-week scan in April 2021.

A few weeks later, he presented her with a baby urn filled with ashes he claimed were of her unborn child. However, after Bush was arrested for breaching the trust of his customers, Ms Ness learned that he had given her the urn before collecting her baby's ashes from the crematorium.

Police investigating Legacy Independent Funeral Directors found the bag that contained her baby's ashes at Bush's funeral home, but it was open and had been emptied. Ms Ness said specialists told her the remains in her possession appeared to be from an animal, leaving her with "nothing to remind me of my child".

"It's the big unknown of what's happened to mine, if he's given them to someone else," she said. "I'll never find out, that's the hardest part."

Ms Ness was told she could not have children because of health reasons before miscarrying at 12 weeks into her pregnancy five years ago.

Lost as a "young girl" during the Covid pandemic, she got in touch with Bush and, finding him "lovely" over the phone, put her trust in him to get a baby urn for the ashes.

Almost three years later, Bush was arrested and she was contacted by police, who told her an investigation had found that the ashes couldn't be hers.

"It's taken a toll on me mentally," Ms Ness said. "I'm not the person I used to be, I feel like I'm such a shy person, I don't have any trust any more.

"I always like to think my baby's out there with someone else, but the unknown is the worst thing about it."

The 28-year-old added that she felt "very numb" thinking about Bush, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail this week.

"I'm not a nasty person, I've never not liked anybody, but I don't wish him well, I really hope something bad happens to him," she said.

"I hope he gets put through torture like what he's put me and the other families through. He's not a nice person, what he's done is absolutely disgusting. I don't think mentally I'll ever be able to recover from this."

Bush was sentenced on Friday for breaching the trust of his customers at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors "on an almost industrial scale" and "in a myriad of ways", from mixing up ashes to fleecing vulnerable pensioners with fake funeral plans.