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

Yes the government do contribute to children’s funerals
there’s actually all sorts of grants for funerals provided by the government.

Didn't know about the delay but I've just looked it up now. In my memory it happened soon after his death but it was five months. With Huntley they might as well just get on with it cheaply and quickly.

Exactly. The OP was probably there tbf

The main thing is, apart from his mum, nobody will miss him. Absolutely nobody .

I think it's because usually it's the female members of the family (I.e. mothers) who tend to stick around to pick up all the pieces. I doubt his father was on the scene.

He was murdered in prison. While nobody will mourn him (except his mother), i don't think his mum should foot that bill.

Personally I'd favour dumping him in landfill 🤷‍♀️ I'm only partly joking.

If 'someone other than the taxpayer ought to fund the funeral' it seems logical to me that the person who caused the death should be paying - as in the concept that actions have consequences.

It was interesting to see an interview with the funeral directors who handled Ian Brady's remains.

They made the point that as a human being he was entitled to a proper funeral.

If I was to get upset about anything its when people like Henry Vincent who was stabbed by a home owner whose house he had broken into in Hither Green then get a huge funeral which is effectively used to try and terrorise the community he died in.

Thats the sort of funeral we should be upset about

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5688751/Henry-Vincent-funeral-Lurid-100-000-send-burglar-killed-pensioner.html

@sweetsilenceI'm very sorry for your loss 💐

I would think that he has been cremated and that will have carried out with the utmost secrecy so that we don't get protesters at the crematorium or, alternatively, sightseeing idiots. Paying for his funeral allows the government to decide the arrangements.
Edited for typos.

She would be allowed to pay if she wanted to. But, it’s normal that the government pay for those who die in prison. Especially if the state failed in their duty of care towards that prisoner.

It’ll be a secret and very basic cremation, and his ashes will be scattered somewhere. A negligible cost against keeping him in prison.

None of this was her fault. 🤷‍♀️

⬆️ this.

We don't know the taxpayer is paying anything.

If someone dies in prison then the prison service can contribute UP TO £3000.

I would not be surprised if he has already been cremated.

That is not guaranteed

The family would need to prove that the prison service failed to protect him

They would need to prove there was a credible threat that the prison service knew about and did nothing about

I would be surprised if the family pursue this given the bad publicity they would get

Body disposal costs vary by region, but also by job. Murdered prisoners will always come with a risk of someone acting unpredictably, mostly protesters, but possibly fans. Funeral directors can turn down work that isn't attractive. The government has a responsibility to ensure bodies are disposed of in a hygienic way.

I think people using the word funeral are skewing views a bit. It isn't a funeral in the sense of a eulogy, some hymns and a poem. It is disposal of a corpse.

You would be surprised at how many ‘ grieving relatives’ do expect the tax payer to fund their relatives funeral. Not all of them are poor either. Many don’t want the cost to be taken out of the deceased’s estate.

I'm not clear OP on what you think should happen. Should his mother be forced to pay? Why her and not any other relatives? Or should his body just stay in the prison morgue indefinitely? Or something else?

I don't think his mother should pay. He was an adult, living away from home when he committed the crime, so she's not responsible for him. I believe she was disgusted and ashamed of him, and probably doesn't want to pay.

The prison service is obligated to pay up to £3K because he died in their custody. There's no-one to mourn him (refuse to write his name), and direct-to-crematorium funerals cost less than £2K, so there will be no additional funds required from the public purse. When you compare it to how much it cost to keep him in prison, it's £2k well spent.

People really need to stop the hand-wringing about this. It's giving the scumbag more attention, even in death.

I typed the question mark by accident

They've said it probably won’t. The policy is “up to £3k” for anyone who dies in custody. There are rules about what it can pay for eg just the costs of the cremation or burial itself, funeral director costs. It can’t go towards a headstone or any ceremony stuff like an order of service (I assume he wouldn’t have one anyway, but it’s a general rule for deaths in custody regardless of the reason they were in custody).

What happens if she doesn’t pay? You just leave the body to rot? He was in the care of the prison service who failed to keep him safe. Just paying to get done with him is nothing in the greater scheme of things.

Also even if his mum does get compensation for his death it is unlikely to be a massive sum. It’s not like there’s things like loss of earnings/her relying on him financially to be taken into account.

As I understand it he has a daughter who wants nothing to do with him. Should she be out of pocket?

He was, like it or not, the taxpayers problem as a result of him being in prison - as we don’t have the death penalty we as a society chose to have him locked up for all of his days. As such, prisoners do have the right not to be murdered and basic needs met. Including a funeral in the event of the state failing to ensure this.

Given the daughter has stated she’d be happy for the ashes to be flushed down the bog, I think the 3k probably covers a basic funeral, direct cremation sort of thing?

Why should his mum pay he's a grown adult

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Jessica and Holly's parents will have at least got sympathy, his mother will have got vilification. It's not a competition anyway. Two very different griefs, two very different and valid pains.

I lost a child and it's turned my life upside down. If I think I'd lost them and they'd committed these kind of crimes, it feels like it would amplify it and add other layers. His mother also has my sympathy.

You can’t flush him down the toilet unless you cremate him first. Which will cost 3k. Which the state will pay for because they legally have to.