Prevention of the lawful and decent burial of a dead body is an offence under the
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...
of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Outside of homicide (to be an added count) it is quite rare. It is triable by indictment and can be punished by, at maximum, life imprisonment, an unlimited fine or both.
An example of the offence, standalone, is detaining a body, for instance upon a claim for fees or a debt, refusing to deliver it to the executors for burial, or when entrusted with it for burial selling for dissection.
Burning a body instead of burying it was not illegal.
It is now an offence to burn a body otherwise than in an approved
crematorium
A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also b ...
.
Disposing of the dead body of a child with intent to conceal the birth (regardless as to when the child died) is a different offence; that under section 60 of the
Offences Against the Person Act 1861.
Recent cases
Hans Kristian Rausing, heir to
Hans Rausing
Hans Anders Rausing, KBE (25 March 1926 – 30 August 2019) was a Swedish industrialist and philanthropist based in the United Kingdom. He made his fortune from his co-inheritance of Tetra Pak, a company founded by his father Ruben Rausing, and ...
who owns the multinational food packaging and processing company
Tetra Pak
Tetra Pak is a Swedish–Swiss multinational food packaging and processing company with head offices in Lund, Sweden, and Pully, Switzerland. The company offers packaging, filling machines and processing for dairy, beverages, cheese, ice crea ...
, was charged with the offence on 17 July 2012 after police discovered the corpse of his wife,
Eva
Eva or EVA may refer to:
* Eva (name), a feminine given name
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
* Eva (Dynamite Entertainment), a comic book character by Dynamite Entertainment
* Eva (''Devil May Cry''), Dante's mother in t ...
. He received a suspended prison sentence.
Nathan Matthews and his girlfriend, Shauna Hoare were charged then convicted with this after murdering
Becky Watts; the defence team received substantial legal aid principally due to the absence of witnesses of the killing.
References
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Crimes
Common law offences in England and Wales
English criminal law
Burials in the United Kingdom