'Shamed' undertaker avoids second trial

Oxfordshire funeral director Roger Barker, 58, right, will not face a second trial on fraud charges, but a judge said he should be forever haunted by his cruelty.

Barker, of Bridge Farm House, Bridge Farm Close, Grove, allegedly kept a bucket containing the ashes of several deceased people.

Portions were handed out to grieving relatives who were told they were the complete remains of their recently departed, Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court heard.

Relatives of one young road accident victim, Lee Kent, told an earlier trial in February last year that they had their son cremated.

Two days later they unwittingly interred someone else's remains.

Barker, who ran the business R and H Barker, was found guilty by a jury of wrongly charging £1,700 for the funeral. The Rev Christopher Walker, vicar of South Moreton, near Didcot, denied in court that he had joined Barker to say prayers while the undertaker scattered the surplus ashes.

Walker, 54, later confessed he had perjured himself.

Barker faced further charges when another bereaved family came forward after reading publicity surrounding the case.

They claimed, after their father William Robertson died in December 2002, the funeral director gave them the wrong ashes, allowing them to be interred in the grounds of Cholsey Church.

Barker had been due to enter a plea to a charge of obtaining by deception yesterday, but his barrister Ben Compton successfully argued that the case should be dropped.

Mr Compton said prosecutors knew about the allegations before last year's trial and that they should have been dealt with then.

Judge Timothy Lawrence upheld defence claims that after serving 160 hours' community service for the same offence the funeral director could not be sentenced to any further hours.

He said he could see little public interest in the case being pursued further.

"This does not mean that the defendant leaves court with a good character," he added.