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

He must have had a funeral to be turn into ashes.

Surely if we were to force his Mum to cover it (which is bonkers), with her money she could
do what she likes?

I bet you’d be outraged to see him have an expensive funeral with family present.

He isn’t his Mum’s problem. I don’t think my parents would pay for my funeral and I’m not a criminal.

This is so true . . . I've just googled to see what happened at the funerals of three other prisoners

Ian Brady's & Peter Sutcliffe's were swift and private. However Myra Hindley's, although held in the evening, was attended by 12 people, numerous journalists and it took 50 officers to police it

It's far better that this is dealt with quietly, out of the public eye and with the absolute minimum expenditure.

Ian Brady didn't have a funeral and his ashes were disposed of at sea. I suppose this is slightly different because Huntley was murdered when he should have been protected by the state. But it would be easier if they just had a quiet committal.

The minority crowing about the victims families are also ignoring the fact that this option is the least harmful to them also. If the state takes charge they can ensure that it is done as anonymously as possible. No picture for the tabloids, no one taking advantage of the infamy to get clicks online, no grave that could attract weirdos. It would be done discreetly and quickly.

You think anyway. However, no one really knows for a fact.

I was going to make a similar point. How do people suggest we make the mum pay? Force a gun to her head? Spend thousands forcing a change of law resulting in far more tax payers money being spent than would cost the funeral and no doubt cause even more distress to his victims families.

Its as if people believe the more outraged they are, the more morally superior they are. You can still be disgusted by his crimes and realise that dead bodies whether they be murderers or not need to be disposed of safely and legally for public health reasons. And that the cost for this comes at an absolute miminmal cost to the tax payer.

Indeed - this is what "chucking away" the body looks like. The most basic legal disposal allowed.

Why should she?

As has been pointed out multiple times on thid thread, including by someone who actually works in the field, it probably won't cost £3k. That is the maximum amount that the legislation allows, not what is automatically paid. In all probability, once the Coroner releases the body there will be the most basic and cheapest cremation and disposal of the body possible, with the minimum possible people involved or even knowing about it. Nobody, including his close family appears to be asking anything more than that.
But a dead body, no matter who it belonged to must be disposed of in accordance with the appropriate legislation. There are good reasons why we don't bury bodies on random plots of land or chuck them off fishing boats these days. People are getting stirred into a frenzy protesting about something that won't even be happening. It's not a funeral, it's the disposal of a body.

Maybe the terminally outraged think that a public health funeral is an exciting and generous state benefit they are somehow missing out on.

There is no legal obligation on his mother to dispose of his body.

Are you suggesting the tax payer should fund an attempt to force her to do something they are not legally entitled to force her to do? Not only would that be futile, but it would cost more than cremating him.

You are pissing in the wind, OP. The fact is, there is a cost to the tax payer in dealing with people who commit crimes whether we like it or not and disposing of this vile man's corpse is part of that cost.

I think people have said the actual cost is less than £2k. It's hardly extravagant and it's a fraction of pennies you pay in tax.

And who is meant to pay for it?

I suppose we could drop his rotting corpse in a field close to the home of one of the people who think the state shouldn't dispose of him properly... 🙄

May be we could hang his body from a gibbet over the Thames to dissuade others. Seems to be the line of thinking for some on here.

So what's your alternative?

There are people signing a petition objecting to the tax payer paying a tiny amount for a necessary public health funeral? Jesus, some people really need to get a hobby.

Well there’s 50,000 people who agree with the OP if the petition going around is anything to go by.

I agree with the OP. Why should we pay? How would a simple cremation in a cheap coffin cost so much?

It is a waste of time. He’s going to be cremated and that’s that. Nobody is going to make an exemption specifically for Ian Huntley when other murderers have had their cremations paid for. Most of us would rather pay for his body to he disposed than keeping him alive, so what on earth is the point in this debate?

Well he still needs to be cremated first, at a cost to the tax payer before his ashes can be flushed down the toilet so its a completely moot point anyway.

Think you need a proper lead lined coffin and stuff. There’s only a few places in the country where you can be buried at sea and there’s all kind of stuff you have to do.

Anyway he’s being dispatched in the cheapest and quickest way possible, and no way should his mother or any other relative be liable for the costs.

Agreed, ditching a body at sea just isn't an option cost wise. And I'd bet its illegal different if it's a boat which has sunk or a person over board and bodies can't be recovered.

So many people are suggesting daft things like ditch at sea with out actually thinking that too has a cost.

A standard Public Health Funeral is paid for by the council, and is unattended. So anyone who has been to one of those would have been staff.
Prison deaths (I know he died in hospital but he was still a prisoner) the family can arrange as they would for non-incarcerated family members and the Family Liaison Officer notifies next of kin etc. If the prisoner has any money, the funeral is paid out of the estate, and the family can do whatever they usually would, obviously the family can choose to pay for a service and wake themselves if they want to.
This corpse needs disposing of just as much as the corpses of people who were loved and revered in life. The public don't want to be walking past a corpse left for the birds, the binmen don't want it at the tip. There's a lot wrong with the criminal justice system but the prison service arranging for swift hygienic disposal of a corpse isn't it.