A funeral director has been accused of taking the body of a deceased baby to her home and placing him in a baby bouncer to “watch cartoons".
Amie Upton, who runs the infant funeral service Florrie’s Army in Leeds, is now at the centre of serious allegations made by grieving families who say their children’s bodies were stored in inappropriate and distressing conditions.
One heartbroken mother named Zoe Ward said she was left “screaming” after finding her son Bleu’s body in the 38-year-old's living room.
Bleu was three weeks old when he died of brain damage at Leeds General Infirmary in 2021. Ward had asked Florrie’s Army to organise his funeral after a recommendation from a family friend.
She told the BBC she expected her son’s body would be kept in a professional environment, but when she visited the following day, she said she was “terrified” to find Upton “watching” PJ Masks with Bleu’s body placed beside her in a baby bouncer in the living room.
“I realised it were Bleu and she (Ms Upton) says: ‘Come in, we're watching PJ Masks,’” she said. “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,'” she shared.
Ward said her mother arranged for another funeral director to collect Bleu’s body. “I didn't want him in that house,” she said, adding that the “bizarre” experience had left her "upset and angry".
Another couple told the outlet that their stillborn daughter, born at St James’s Hospital in Leeds earlier this year, was also taken to Upton’s home without their consent.
They claimed that the funeral director had told them the body was being kept at a funeral parlour in Headingley, but later revealed the child was in her house instead, five miles away from where they thought she was.
“I just didn't know why she was there,” the mother said, describing the situation as like a “horror film”. She said she believed the body had not been stored properly: “It was really smelly, like she'd been in there and not kept cool.”
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has confirmed Upton was banned from its mortuaries and maternity wards earlier this year. Rabina Tindale, Chief Nurse at the Trust, said: “Over the past few years, we have received several serious concerns about services provided by Amie Upton," per Daily Mail.
“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," she added.
The Trust said it had implemented safeguarding measures since 2021, including monitoring Upton’s visits to the mortuary and ensuring handovers of bodies are done in line with its procedures.
This year, it went further and barred her from maternity services altogether unless attending as a patient.
West Yorkshire Police confirmed it had examined two complaints about Upton’s funeral service since 2021, but disclosed that "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,” they added.
Responding to the BBC’s findings, Upton dismissed the claims as “ridiculous," Manchester Evening News reported.
She said she has received only two complaints in the eight years since founding Florrie’s Army, which provides bereavement support, free handprints, photographs, baby clothing, and funeral services for grieving parents.
She also alleged that she had previously cared for babies at her residence but had not done so in the last four years. She said many families found it unbearable to imagine their children alone in a mortuary.
Regarding Ward’s claim that Bleu was placed in a bouncer, Upton said: “I had a laid-down chair that I used to transfer them into while I changed the bedding. It wasn't a bouncer. So she's making out like I stuck a baby in a bouncer and I'm bouncing away. That's not what we're happening. Her baby was laid in a laid back chair that we had that we used to transfer babies from the beds.”
“I understand, it's not something you hear every day. The first ever baby I brought home, (the family) could not sing my praises enough. I don't want to pull apart mortuaries or the funeral industry but I know here the babies were never left alone. I was always here."
"They were always clean and tidy and were not deteriorating or smelly as claimed on posts I've seen today... We had refrigerating units up there and cold cots. The babies here were not put in a fridge when staff go home, but I was here all the time, she continued.
Upton concluded: “Their babies knew nothing but love. You don't find nurses reading their babies a story. I would. I know I only ever did my best. It is ridiculous."
Florrie’s Army was established in 2017, after Upton lost her own unborn child. She says her baby died after her abusive partner attacked her with a child’s pushchair, causing her stomach to hit an open freezer door. Upton was left in a coma.
The baby’s father, Shaun Birchall, 28, was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm.
Upton has promoted Florrie’s Army as a legacy for her daughter, and a JustGiving page in her name describes plans to create a “Florrie's Army Day Centre” to continue providing support to over 100 families weekly.
The funeral industry in England and Wales remains unregulated, as there are no legal requirements for how and where bodies are stored, and no qualifications are required to operate as a funeral director.
An inquiry in July recommended that the government introduce statutory regulation. The government has not yet responded.