AIBU to question why taxpayers should fund Ian Huntley’s cremation?

I agree. I think I’d been on a night out when I saw this thread. I don’t get out much, so was maybe not fully thinking 😬

Its crazy, what do the 50,000 people think is going to happen to the body?

Someone up thread who I couldn't be arsed to argue with suggested a funeral was much more than just a cremation.

Legal definition :funeral is defined as a ceremony, service, or act marking the final disposal of a deceased person's body, typically involving burial or cremation.

So i guess they are right it does include a service of some description. That could be a simple prayer.

Oops link to the article! https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/ian-huntley-petition-funeral-ministry-justice-b1274588.html

Here we go. Another 50,000 people lacking basic comprehensive skills. People just latch on the world funeral and think that somehow the state is shelling out thousands on herses, memorial services and headstones and arguing he should be getting the most basic of services which is EXACTLY what he'll be getting. No word either of who will pay for it if not the state.

Everyone was sickened by his crimes and outraged. No one defends him. But I get sick of seeing people using other people's grief for their own attention. You see it on here with people "crying and hugging their children tightly" when they heard the news of his death. People posting endlessly on social media about it and pictures of Holly and Jessica in angel wings using the very same picture his parents had to ask the press to stop using.

From what I've read the family don't mention his name. The people of Soham don't mention his name. They carry themselves with a quiet dignity. All these petitions do is just add further trauma to the family by keeping his name in the public eye.

Yes it would be terrible I remember the strange ways riots that spread across the contrry when the prisoners took control of the prison it must have been terrifying for everyone.

Yes. And also, if an inmate can be murdered, so can a member of staff or even a visitor. Total screw up.

Yes as abhorrent as he was
The prison service has a duty of care towards all prisoners, wether the public like that or not
It would be utter carnage if that wasent the case.

The prison system was responsible for allowing his murder. They screwed up. Doesn’t matter what he did. This was a death that should not have happened.

Relatives don’t usually pay. It comes out of the estate of the deceased. Very few don’t even leave enough for a basic cremation.

It will just be seen as body disposal. No flowers. Nothing for remembrance. Absolutely nothing.

I find the irony in this post off the scale. You've quite rightly pointed out Huntley committed crimes against women.

But I fail to see how you're on the side of women abused being men, if you're trying to hold another women (his mum) responsible for his crimes and that she should pay for his funeral. By suggesting she pays for his funeral, it suggests you think she bears some of the responsibility.

Huntley and Huntley alone was responsible for what he did. No one else. If his estate can't pay then the state does.

Until we hold men accountable for their own actions for violence against women, nothing will change.

It'll be the same people as well who are all "thinking of Holly and Jessica" while at the same time arguing to make something as simple as a cremation as long and as drawn out as possible by trying to force family members who have no legal responsibility to pay for his funeral.

It astounds me that people can't possibly think how that would be more distressing to the victims families.

The company I work for include one family car automatically in the package so we would take the family.

There seems to be some train of thought on here that the more fuss you are make about possibly everything to with Huntley such as making half brained suggestions of ditching him at sea or getting his mum to pay for the funeral. Or the more blood thirsty you are calling for the death penalty or violence in prison, that you are somehow more morally superior, care more about his victims or are more outraged at his crimes.

That's exactly it.

Like being too stupid to think sensibly about how to dispose of Huntley's corpse means they're more outraged about his crimes.

This is from the government document regarding deaths of prisoners📧

As a guide, reasonable funeral costs may include:
• funeral director’s fees
• hearse
• simple coffin
• cremation or burial fees (this does not include the cost of the burial plot)
• faith or belief leaders’ fees (when someone from the prison’s chaplaincy team is not available or the family chose their own leader).

Reasonable costs do not include the following:
• headstone
• embalming or chapel of rest for viewing the deceased
• flowers
• transportation for mourners
• clothes for the deceased and/or mourners
• a wake, or other hospitality related to the funeral
• obituary notices
• order of service sheets

But that's completely irrelevant to who pays or how his body is disposed.

You can still be outraged at his crimes and realise that his body needs to be disposed of safely and hygienically.

There seems to be some train of thought on here that the more fuss you are make about possibly everything to with Huntley such as making half brained suggestions of ditching him at sea or getting his mum to pay for the funeral. Or the more blood thirsty you are calling for the death penalty or violence in prison, that you are somehow more morally superior, care more about his victims or are more outraged at his crimes.

The Wells and Chapman families haven't been calling for his mum to pay for his funeral, the death penalty or condoning violence in prisons. I'm pretty sure they want the whole thing to go away as quickly and quietly as possible so they can move on with their lives.

That would cost more than a basic cremation.

Who paid for his cremation and ashes disposal?

YABVU

He was a criminal, sentenced to prison. Taxpayers were funding his prison costs.
He was not sentenced to death
Actually if he had been, the Taxpayers would pay for the cremation in that case as well.

You are being very unreasonable to suggest selective application of the death in prison rules based on public opinion about the prisoner in question. It isn't part of the punishment.

He will get the same thing as someone who doesn't have the funds to pay for a funeral....with the opportunity for family to put what they can towards it.

So he gets a cremation and that's about it. The hearse, one family car and a spray of flowers.

One of the first funerals I did was one of those. The family put a bit of extra to have a burial. But it was still a respectful thing to do for the family....they weren't responsible for him being evil. You make that choice yourself.

No matter what he's done.
Nobody can deny his mother's right to mourn her son. If she wants his ashes to put under a rose bush then that is her right.

He is still the baby she carried, birthed, and raised full of hopes and dreams.
She wouldn't have expected him to be come a murderer or be murdered.

Nobody can say how they'd feel in that situation. It's probably a right mixed bag of emotions.

He should go the same way as Ian Brady. Cremated in secret, then his ashes dispersed by being put in a salt urn, and dumped at sea, with no publicity and no fuss. No chance for any misguided people to honour his passing, ir for others to dedicate his grave.

You don't think? Bloody hell.

I'd like to add a small addendum to question b, if I may. If his mother should be allowed/forced to pay, how does that work if she wants something less minimalist and more celebratory than people seem to be envisaging OP? Not asking whether you think she would, because none of us know her anyway so that's meaningless. Only what would happen if she did.

The state paying for it means the authorities get to be in ultimate charge of doing it quietly and practically, which is in everyone's interests.

Government departments and councils pay a lot less than that to the funeral directors. It’s a very basic cremation.