'Our baby was robbed of dignity' says couple after funeral director kept body at home

A couple who found the body of their baby daughter lying on the sofa at a funeral director's home say their child was "robbed of her dignity".

Cody and Liam Townend's daughter, Macie-Mae, was stillborn at a Leeds hospital in January, with the pair appointing Amie Upton to oversee her funeral.

Earlier this week, a BBC investigation reported Ms Upton had been banned from entering any of Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust's mortuaries and maternity wards for keeping the bodies of babies at her home.

Ms Upton has previously said she had only ever received two complaints in her eight years of running her baby loss support and funeral service, Florrie's Army.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, the couple said they discovered Ms Upton had kept their daughter's body at her home, six miles away from the funeral parlour where they believed her body was being looked after.

Mr and Mrs Townend said they had found Macie-Mae's body on a sofa at Ms Upton's home wrapped in a blanket, 10 days after they had last seen her.

Mrs Townend said: "I was mortified. I didn't know what to say, didn't know what to think.

"It was awful. It felt like she was the mother, like we weren't the parents of that baby. It's like she just took everything over.

"Dignity is what Macie-Mae was robbed of. She had no dignity."

Mr Townend said the couple just wanted to get their baby out of the home as "quickly as possible", adding that Ms Upton's behaviour was "not normal".

He said: "The baby should have been in a chapel of rest and she wasn't, so we were like, 'what's going on here?'"

West Yorkshire Police said it had investigated Florrie's Army, but after "extensive enquiries" had not identified any potential crimes.

Ms Upton previously told the BBC she had had only two complaints about the service in eight years.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror on Thursday, she said the babies in her care "knew nothing but love" and that the bodies kept at her home were never left alone.

Mr and Mrs Townend, who visit their daughter's grave every day, have called for more regulation of the funeral industry.

The couple had been trying to have a baby for four years before Macie-Mae was conceived.

Mrs Townend said: "It's harder to open up your own burger van than it is to open your own funeral home.

"It needs to change. If [regulations] were already in place, we wouldn't have to go through this."

Mr Townend added: "If there's no regulations around the funeral directors, how do you now you're going to be safe, at least when you pass away?

"When you're at that stage of life and you do pass away, you still need a sense of security. You're still entitled to human rights."

Earlier this week, the Townend's MP Mark Sewards said he was pushing for new powers to regulate the industry and said he would "hold the government's feet to the flames" to ensure any recommendations were implemented.

The government has said grieving families affected had "rightly expected their children to be treated with dignity and respect" and that it was "considering the full range of options to improve standards" in the funeral industry.