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

[PassingStranger]

Can't Ian Huntleys mother who was at his bedside and in touch with him, pay for his cremation.
Why should the tax payer pay?
He's already cost the taxpayer loads.🤔😫

Zero point going over old ground.
There is a body that needs disposed of government policy allows £3k to do it. So that should cover it.

You can't murder someone in self defense. That would be manslaughter.

Murder has to be intentional and premeditated.

Are you asking?

Then yes, it's a waste of time.

Nice try.

But still nonsense.

You haven't come up with any arguments.

What exactly is the debate? A persons funeral costs are the responsibility of the estate of the deceased. If the deceased has no assets and the estate has no money then the state picks up the tab for a basic funeral. That applies whether you are in prison, hospital or just at home. I don’t expect many imprisoned for life have much in the way of assets anyway. There is no legal basis for making a relative or parent responsible for the cost of a funeral, and it is ridiculous to suggest that just visiting a prisoner makes you liable for the cost. None of which lessens the vileness of his crimes, but then his mother is not responsible for those either…

Because people these days seem to have very insular thinking and zoom in on one part of something and focus on that and never give any thoughts to how it all works, as much as I dont want to put any more on schools maybe more critical thinking needs to be taught because it sure as heck does not seem to reach adults

They are victims in this too.

Can you imagine the distress of seeing your son commit awful crimes and then be murdered?

They deserve compassion in the forms of a cremation and compensation.

It's really great to see so much empathy on here.

@PassingStranger how more petty could you be? Show some respect to those who's lives have been turned upside down in pain over this case.
You really should be ashamed of yourself. I'm not even sure why I'm feeding the dragon.

Brady's cremation only happened after a complete circus though. No authority wanted to deal with it so they literally left his body in mortuary storage for months and months, until a court order forced the local council to sort it out. That was a tremendous waste of time and resources.

Prison or not, there is a body and it is a public health issue. No one person is financially responsible for resolving that issue. There might be money in the deceased’s estate, someone can volunteer to pay, or the state must intervene.

FFS!!

In cases like this the crematorium has to be thoroughly cleaned before and after to ensure there is no cross contamination with other remains. The furnace will be out of action for a time which adds to the cost. This is why it will be more than the cheapest available funeral.

He died in the care of the state. The state pays.

Well, the equivalent checks at the time. He told the admin assistant to not bother with the background checks. I know the murder of Holly and Jessica changed legislation. Holly and Jessica were 18 months older than my eldest DD, cases stay with you when you have children/grandchildren around the same age. I remember this case well.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/mar/12/childrensservices.schools

@PeppyBrickQuoter probably because they aren't notorious. This murder has been about notoriety, not morality or justice. While they may be segregated, they could still be got to. But that's irrelevant to the discussion.

@Starbright102 the DWP pays around £2400 in total towards a funeral. The cost of prisoner funerals are more because there's usually more involved re transportation and possibly storage. Both girls funerals were private, but were a community affair. Details were never published.

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.

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.

Why should his mum pay he's a grown adult

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?

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.

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.

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).

I typed the question mark by accident

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'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?

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.