“I didn’t want him in that house,” Ward said, reportedly having told her mother in the call, “it’s mucky, it’s dirty, he can’t stay here.”
After Bleu died of brain damage at 3 weeks old, Ward was referred to Florrie’s Army, an organisation that specialised in funerals and wrap-around care for families experiencing baby loss.
Upton allegedly started the services after the stillbirth of her own daughter in 2017.
The BBC investigation found that while Upton has a cold cot in her home, it does not appear to have been used every time a baby was kept there.
A couple, given the names Sharon and Paul, drove to pick up their deceased daughter after realising she was being kept at Upton’s house.
When they picked the baby up, Sharon said she was “really smelly, like she’d been in there and not kept cool”.
Upton told the Mirror no children had been kept in her home since 2021.
“She’s making out like I stuck a baby in a bouncer and I’m bouncing away. That’s not what was happening. Her baby was laid back in a chair that we that we used to transfer babies from the beds.”
The United Kingdom has no regulations around how bodies are stored, and while both national trade organisations require members to submit to inspections of their processes and premises, Upton is not a member of either group.
According to the BBC, West Yorkshire Police said after “extensive inquiries” into the funeral service, “no potential crimes were identified”.
However, Upton has been banned from local mortuaries and maternity wards by the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust.
