A funeral director has admitted preventing the burials of 30 bodies and stealing donations made to charities by mourners.

Robert Bush, 48, was arrested after police investigated Hull-based Legacy Independent Funeral Directors following a report of "concern for care of the deceased" in March 2024.

Bush, formerly of East Yorkshire and now living in West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, and one of theft relating to charitable donations.

He previously admitted presenting families with the ashes of strangers and fraudulently selling funeral plans. He will be sentenced at a later date.

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Warning: This article contains details some people may find distressing.

Tristan Essex says his memories of his nana, Jessie Stockdale, are now "tainted" after funeral director Robert Bush kept her body for five months after her family were told her funeral had taken place.

Bush, who ran Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull, has admitted a series of offences, including preventing the burials of 30 bodies, after police uncovered widespread wrongdoing at the business.

According to Tristan, with the benefit of hindsight, there had been warning signs.

"There was an awful smell in the funeral directors," he recalled. "My grandma was changed into different coffins every time we viewed her, and we obviously picked a specific coffin.

"She was put into larger coffins which were wider, longer, different colours, different trims. She was in at least three or four different coffins.

"We complained because the frill on the coffin was splattered with blood.

"There was black, thick mould around the inside of the coffin as well."

Victims and their families have been waiting for justice since the investigation began two years ago.

Bush, 48, specialised in low-cost funerals and claimed on his company's social media to offer "dignified personal care".

Behind the scenes, officers found a very different picture.

Humberside Police described its inquiry as "complex, protracted and highly sensitive", triggered by a report of "concern for care of the deceased" in March 2024.

Within days, 35 bodies and half a tonne of human ashes were recovered from the firm's premises on Hessle Road in Hull.

The body of Tristan's grandmother, Jessie, was among those discovered.

Tristan, 26, said his family were "knocked off our feet" when they were told Jessie was a victim.

"Thirty-five bodies were found inside Legacy and one of them had an ankle bracelet with my nana's name on," he said.

• Funeral director admits preventing burials of 30 bodies

Bush had been due to stand trial in October, but during a hearing at Hull Crown Court on Thursday he admitted 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial.

He also pleaded guilty to one charge of stealing money from charity collection boxes.

The admissions followed others in October last year, when Bush pleaded guilty to 35 offences of fraud by false representation, relating to the proper care of remains and the return of ashes. Four of the charges related to giving women ashes that he falsely claimed were those of their unborn babies.

He also previously admitted a charge of fraudulently running a business. This related to the sale of funeral plans. There were 172 victims relating to this count alone.

In total, there were 254 victims of Bush's crimes, police said.

Many families were distraught to learn ashes they were given did not belong to their loved ones.

Some had unwittingly worn the ashes of strangers close to their body in the form of specially made jewellery.

One told us how a friend had the ashes mixed with tattoo ink and pushed deep into their skin.

Bush's disregard for the dead and their families did not end there.

More than 1,000 items, including love letters, baby clothes and treasured possessions belonging to the victims were found on the funeral director's premises, a crisis response team told the BBC.

"It was like a hoarder's house," said Kevin Curreri of Kenyon Emergency Services.

The team is typically brought in by governments in the wake of natural disasters, plane crashes and terrorism incidents.

This time, it was appointed by Hull City Council to recover the scene, after police had finished with it.

According to Curreri, human remains and personal possessions had been treated "so disrespectfully" that it showed "a pretty significant breach of trust".

Following the police searches, floral tributes were left outside the parlour.

Some of the notes attached to them demonstrated the unbridled rage felt towards the person responsible for causing this close-knit community so much heartache.

In stark contrast to Bush's large detached home in Kirk Ella – a desirable village in the East Riding of Yorkshire – his funeral business, which opened in 2010, stood in Hessle Road, a working-class street that was once the beating heart of Hull's fishing industry.

Bush hid behind a veneer of respectability, his neighbours painting a picture of a family man who was willing to run errands and help complete DIY tasks for them.

Professionally, too, nothing appeared to be too much trouble for Bush, with some of his customers telling the BBC how he had offered them the chance to pay him in installments when they told him they were struggling to cover a relative's funeral costs.

One woman said Bush had personally bought their funeral flowers when they ran out of money.

"I just felt so grateful," she said. "I didn't ask questions."

Emma Hardy, MP for Hull West and Haltemprice, said Bush had deliberately pushed low-cost funerals at a vulnerable community.

"He pretended he was their friend," she said.

Bush was anything but.

Not even charities escaped his greed.

Bush stole an unknown amount of cash from charity collection boxes. The donations, in memory of loved ones, were made at funeral services Bush organised.

Families believed the money would go directly to causes close to their hearts.

But it did not.

Between September 2017 and 6 March 2024, a number of good causes, including the Salvation Army, Macmillan Cancer Support, Dove House Hospice, Help for Heroes, the RNLI and Oakwood Dog Rescue were deprived of their funds.

More than 170 people bought non-existent funeral plans through Legacy, including 70-year-old Kevin Newton.

He paid £2,239 in 2012 for his plan.

Kevin said he was "mortified" when he contacted a third-party insurer and was told there was no trace of the plan on its database.

His daughter, Kerry, 36, said: "It's absolutely shocking because it's a lot of money for my dad to fork out and it's not like he can [afford it] again.

"It's unforgivable."

Kevin was able to recover the money as he paid using a card.

The funeral business was dissolved at a court hearing in May 2024 with debts of more than £40,000.

Bush has been bailed to be sentenced on 27 July.

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You could almost hear a sigh of relief from Nasa on Wednesday as its Artemis II rocket finally blasted off.

There's a lot riding on this mission - the safety of its four astronauts, Nasa's reputation, and the credibility of America's claim to be leading the new global space race.

There are mundane questions too: Could the onboard toilet break again? When can the crew nap?

Here's what the next 24 hours should look like for Artemis II.

Where are the astronauts now?

Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are now orbiting Earth about 42,500 miles away, testing out the Orion spacecraft.

The craft's solar wings were fully deployed not long after launch, giving it power to help sustain its journey.

About the size of a minibus, its never been flown in space before by humans so pilot Victor Glover is spending the day pushing it to the extreme.

Nasa want to be sure Orion is voyage-worthy before the crew push on into deep space from where there is no easy return.

They're testing out the life support systems too. But if something goes wrong, the crew has specially-designed suits that could keep them alive for around six days.

What are the crew doing?

Unlike the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s, we can watch a huge amount of what's happening on this voyage as Nasa livestreams the mission.

Cameras above the astronauts' heads show them checking monitors, holding up mobile phones, and pressing buttons.

Then about eight hours after launch, the crew were allowed their first sleep onboard.

On the radio the crew use to communicate with mission command, we heard Commander Reid Wiseman asking where are the team's pyjamas.

He asked for their "comfort garments", before the astronauts went into the sleeping area for about four hours.

Schedules in space are incredibly strict. Every minute is accounted for by Mission Control.

The crew can sleep for about four hours at a time, adding up to eight hours over a 24-hour period.

Sleeping in space can be tricky. The crew must strap themselves in, and generally some astronauts struggle to nod off as their bodies adapt to weightlessness.

But others say their best sleep ever is in space.

This crew have strict instructions to exercise for 30 minutes every day to protect their muscle and bone density as they live without gravity.

Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover went first, testing out Orion's "flywheel exercise device", which is about the size of a carry-on suitcase.

Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen were scheduled to exercise later on - using the wheel for rowing, squats and deadlifts.

We assume they've had their first meals too, from Nasa's tailor-made Artemis II menu.

There is no fridge in Orion, so a lot of the food is freeze-dried and activated using water from an onboard tap.

The crew were allowed to pick their meals in advance, which include macaroni cheese, beef brisket, and five different hot sauces.

They're allowed two drinks a day, including coffee or a "chocolate breakfast drink".

And crucially, as far as we know, the toilet is working. During launch, the facilities broke, raising worries that the team would have to spend 10 days in a craft without a toilet.

After giving astronaut Christina Koch instructions on how to fix the specially-designed loo, Mission Control radioed the crew: "Happy to report that toilet is go for use.... We do recommend letting the system get to operating speed before donating fluid".

When do they go to the Moon?

Today is building up to the snazzily named "trans-lunar injection" burn. Basically, it is a massive push that will propel them out of Earth's orbit and on course to the Moon.

It is supposed to happen Thursday night UK time, but if there are problems, it could be postponed or even cancelled.

A cancellation would be a major setback for Nasa and America as it tries to become the first country to land humans again on the lunar surface by 2028.

If it all goes to plan, the burn will fire for six minutes to send them on a trajectory around the Moon that also uses lunar gravity to slingshot them back to Earth.

Eventually they should fly 6,400 miles (10,299km) beyond the far side of the Moon, which always faces away from the Earth.

That's meant to happen on Monday (6 April). The astronauts will be the first people to see some areas of the far side, although probes from countries including India and China have previously documented this region.

They'll be taking photographs and making observations of this mysterious place for us to see and learn from back on Earth.

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The brother of Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi says he fears her life is in imminent danger after she suffered a suspected heart attack in prison in north-western Iran.

Hamidreza Mohammadi, who is based in Norway, told the BBC that the 53-year-old human rights activist was found unconscious in her bed by fellow inmates at Zanjan Prison last week.

She was taken to the prison infirmary but officials refused to transfer her to a hospital despite her history of heart and lung problems, he said. She also suffers from severe blood pressure fluctuations.

He demanded that she be released immediately for a thorough medical examination.

He also warned that strikes and explosions near the prison since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran a month ago had only added to her stress.

"This war has had a terrible effect on prisoners in Iran. If the prison gets hit, if the prisoners need immediate medical attention, they will not get anything and their lives are in danger," he told the BBC's Newsday programme.

"It's been really difficult for her family... Her children have gone through a lot. Now they experience very uncertain time when they don't know even if in the future there will be any peace or if their mother is going to live or die," he added.

Narges Mohammadi, the vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her activism against female oppression in Iran and promoting human rights.

She has spent more than a decade of her life in prison. In 2021, she began serving a 13-year sentence on charges of committing "propaganda activity against the state" and "collusion against state security", which she denied.

In December 2024, she was given a temporary release from Tehran's notorious Evin prison on medical grounds.

She continued campaigning while undergoing treatment and was arrested in the north-eastern city of Mashhad last December after giving a speech at the memorial ceremony of a fellow human rights activist. Her family said she was taken to hospital after being beaten on the head and neck during the arrest.

A few weeks later protests against Iran's clerical establishment swept across the country. At least 6,508 protesters were killed and 53,000 others arrested in an unprecedented crackdown by security forces on the unrest, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

In early February, Mohammadi was sentenced by a Revolutionary Court in Mashhad to an additional seven and a half years in prison after being convicted of "gathering and collusion" and "propaganda activities", her lawyer said.

She was transferred without warning the following week to Zanjan prison and has been allowed only limited communication with her family since then.

Last Sunday, her legal team and one family member were allowed to visit to visit her in prison under heightened surveillance.

The Free Narges Coalition said in a statement on Tuesday that "her general health was extremely poor, and she appeared pale and weak with significant weight loss when brought to the visitation room by a prison nurse".

It then cited Mohammadi's cellmates as saying that on 24 March she "was found unconscious in her bed, with her eyes rolled back", and that this lasted more than an hour. She was carried to the prison infirmary by fellow inmates, where medication was administered to restore her consciousness, it added.

"Despite this medical emergency, and evident indications of a heart attack, authorities refused to transfer Mohammadi to a hospital or allow her to visit a specialist."

Mohammadi also reported that she had suffered debilitating headaches, nausea, double vision since her violent arrest, and that bruises were still visible on her body, according to the coalition.

"According to the Iranian law, in wartime, when they [authorities] cannot guarantee safety of the prisoners, especially prisoners who are not dangerous to society, they must be allowed to leave the prison until the war is over," Hamidreza Mohammadi said.

"But not only [have they not done] it, they have denied all the political prisoners any medical attention, and their excuse is 'it is wartime'. So our demand is that she immediately be released for a thorough medical examination."

"We know her medical history, we know that she has heart problems and pulmonary problems. She must be in a hospital."

A 2,500-year-old golden helmet considered one of Romania's greatest treasures has been recovered more than a year after it was stolen during a raid on a Dutch museum.

It and two golden bracelets dating back to about 450BC were unveiled as having been returned to the museum on Thursday, secured behind a glass case with two armed police guarding them. A third bracelet has not yet been found.

The theft of the Coțofenești helmet and bracelets by an armed gang who broke into the Drents Museum in Assen caused outrage in Romania and raised questions about security for priceless artefacts on loan to other countries.

"It's a long-awaited result," Romanian prosecutor Daniela Buruiană told journalists.

"We are happy that we are now witnessing here the recovery of the Romanian artefacts," she added.

The treasures, which date from the Dacian era - an Iron Age civilisation that existed roughly where Romania is now - had been on loan from Romania's national history museum when they had been stolen.

Their theft prompted a spat between the two governments that led to the Dutch government paying a reported €5.7m (£5m; $6.5m) in insurance compensation.

Romanian officials refused to discuss what would happen to that money now.

Robert van Langh, director of the Drents Museum in the northern Netherlands, said the helmet had been slightly dented but could be restored. The bracelets remained in perfect condition, he said.

Romanian prosecutor Rareș-Petru Stan spoke of the "major impact" that the theft had had in his home country, and praised his Dutch colleagues for their "hard work and keeping the faith".

"We are continuing the investigation to find the last bracelet," he added, "and we are grateful that we will be able to return this treasure to the Romanian people."

Dutch public prosecutor Corien Fahner revealed that the helmet and bracelets were handed over to authorities on Wednesday following negotiations involving lawyers for the three suspects.

Two men in their mid-30s and one aged 21 will face trial later this month.

The suspects were arrested within days of the gang using explosives to break into the museum, but by then there was no trace of the priceless items.

Art experts have suggested that the helmet and bracelets were stolen to order by a criminal gang.

Several Dutch provincial museums have been targeted in recent years because of the difficulty in providing adequate security for priceless artefacts. The helmet and bracelets were in a glass case that provided little resistance to the armed group.

In 2024, two works by Andy Warhol were stolen from a gallery in the southern Netherlands, and six years ago a Frans Hals painting called Two Laughing Boys was stolen from a small museum in the central town of Leerdam.

The former head of the national history museum in Bucharest, Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu, faced considerable domestic criticism for loaning the gold objects abroad and lost his job within days of the theft.

He spoke of his relief that the helmet had been retrieved.

"This is a unique item in European and even global cultural heritage," he told RTL Nieuws. "The helmet is an important social and political symbol of Dacian civilisation."

A seven-month-old girl was shot and killed in while sitting in her pushchair in "broad daylight" in New York City's borough of Brooklyn, police have said.

Police believe the baby was the unintended victim of a suspected gang-related shooting.

Footage from the scene shows two men driving against the flow of traffic through the Williamsburg neighbourhood when a man sitting on the back of the motorbike takes out a gun and fires "at least two rounds", New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told a news conference.

The bike then crashed and the suspected shooter was apprehended, but a "massive" manhunt was under way for the driver, she said.

"A life that had barely begun was taken in an instant," New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.

"Today is a devastating reminder of how much more work there is to be done to combat gun violence across this city."

Several adults and children, two of whom were in buggies, had been on a street corner when the shooting occurred.

The seven-month-old's parents ran for cover in a nearby corner shop, where they realised their child had been shot, the BBC's US partner CBS reported.

"All the kids started ducking in the corner. The family went to the store and the mom started screaming when she noticed the baby was bleeding from [her] head," witness Bernius Maldonado told CBS.

Emergency services were called at around 13:21 local time (17:21 GMT).

The child was taken to the nearby Woodhull Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Police reported no other people killed or injured in the incident.

"As a mother, I cannot imagine the pain that this family is feeling or the grief that they now carry with them," Tisch said. "It is unspeakable."

Footage seen by police showed the suspects crashing into a car shortly after fleeing the scene.

Both suspects were throw from the moped - but the rear passenger landed so hard he lost "both of his shoes", Tisch said.

An ambulance was called for the injured male and was brought to Brooklyn Hospital, where he was then taken into police custody.

Investigators believe he fits the description of the shooter, based on the clothing he was wearing and his appearance, but was taken into custody as part of an unrelated investigation.

Police are working to connect him to the shooting.

In the tense final hours before Nasa's astronauts flew into space, a series of technical issues threatened to ground their landmark mission.

A faulty toilet and issues involving two safety systems were reported over the radio.

Nasa managed to resolve the problems by being "quick on their feet", an official later said.

The Artemis II crew are now hurtling around the Earth's orbit, carrying out final tests and checks before they head towards the Moon.

Here's what nearly went wrong - and what still could.

'Toilet is go'

The crew quickly discovered that even a trip to the Moon comes with very down‑to‑earth plumbing problems.

Sensors in the spacecraft's waste‑management system threw up some readings they did not expect, according to flight controllers.

Astronaut Christina Koch reportedly acted as a plumber, dismantling parts of the toilet under instruction from mission control.

"Happy to report that toilet is go for use," mission control later said over the radio. "We do recommend letting the system get to operating speed before donating fluid".

The lack of gravity in space means waste management is a key issue in space travel.

Nasa has spent more than $23m (£17.4m) developing the "Universal Waste Management System".

Both men and women are able to use the system, which includes a funnel attached to a hose to process urine while using gentle airflow to eliminate spills.

A specialised seat allows for stools to be sucked into a sealed container, with tethers and restraints being used to stop the crew from floating away.

The Orion - the spacecraft on which they're travelling - also has plenty of backup options, from alternative collection bags to different ways of routing liquids.

Issue with safety systems

There were also issues reported with the flight termination system and the launch abort system - two safety systems that protect astronauts and the public.

The flight termination system allows engineers on the ground to destroy the rocket if it veers off course. It reportedly had a communications issue, which was resolved by using hardware from the previous Space Shuttle programme.

The launch abort system is Orion's emergency escape tower, designed to pull the crew capsule away from the rocket in the event of an emergency during launch or ascent. It reportedly gave a higher-than-expected temperature reading, but it was judged that it wouldn't affect the launch.

With these issues resolved, the countdown clock was held at 10 minutes while engineers went through final preparations.

We then heard the staccato rhythm of the calls by each engineer responsible for the rocket's critical systems.

One by one the voices came back: "Booster, go", "GNC, go", "Range, go" - each reply, a tiny release of tension and a build-up of expectation.

"Artemis II, this is Launch Director – you are go for launch," the crew was told. "We go for all humanity," Commander Reid Wiseman responded.

The rocket then launched into the sky, to the awe of those watching at the Kennedy Space Centre and around the world.

Trying to break spacecraft

Now safely in the Earth's orbit, the crew have been directed to spend hours quietly trying to break their spacecraft - on purpose.

They cycle computers through different modes, switch radios between ground stations and relay satellites, and deliberately move around the cabin to see how the life‑support system copes as carbon dioxide and humidity build up.

Engineers also command small thruster firings and check the European‑built service module responds exactly as the models predict.

All of this is designed to answer a simple question: is the ship healthy enough to risk flying hundreds of thousands of kilometres from home with no quick way back?

If any of these tests throws up something they do not understand, Nasa will not hesitate to call off the trans-lunar injection burn and use Orion's engine to bring the astronauts straight back to earth.

Additional reporting by Esme Stallard and Tom Bennett

Long before he was chosen to orbit the Moon in the ongoing Artemis II mission, Jeremy Hansen was a young cadet at the Royal Military College of Canada. He carried a dream - and had a chance interaction that would help shape his future.

In 1995, during his first year at the military college, Hansen met one of his heroes: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

That was before Hadfield had served as commander of the International Space Station. But Hansen saw in his compatriot much of what he aspired to be: a fighter pilot and an astronaut.

Hansen asked Hadfield for his email address, and got it on the spot.

The brief encounter marked the beginning of a journey that would see Hansen follow closely in his hero's footsteps - first as a fighter pilot, and then by joining the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in 2009.

Throughout his astronaut training, his mentor along the way was Hadfield, a young Hansen told the BBC in 2014.

The simple but lasting advice he was given: follow what makes you passionate.

"Jeremy has been getting ready for this flight since he was five years old," Hadfield told Canadian singer Emm Gryner in a podcast in March.

Hansen, now 50, grew up on a farm near London, Ontario, where his fascination with aviation began early.

As a child, he came across a page in an encyclopedia featuring Neil Armstrong and the picture of an astronaut on the Moon from the 1969 Apollo mission.

"That page is still burnt in my brain," Hansen told Spaceflight Now in an interview posted last month.

Soon after, he transformed his childhood treehouse into his own imaginary rocket ship.

In his teens, he went on to join the air cadets youth programme, and to study space science and physics at university.

He eventually became a fighter pilot, flying CF-18s out of the army base in Cold Lake, Alberta, and working with North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad).

Fourteen years after joining the CSA, Hansen was selected for Artemis II: the first crewed mission to travel around the Moon in more than 50 years.

Over the course of 10 days, the crew of four astronauts will travel farther from Earth than any human before them.

Hansen is the only non-American on board. He is joined by mission commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and fellow mission specialist Christina Koch.

In an interview with the CSA, Hansen said he was aware that the Artemis II mission might not go smoothly.

"To do something that has never been done before means that your team is very likely to face failure," Hansen said. "I like the fact that in space, we are committed to bold goals to the extent that we will not let periodic failure stop our forward progress," he said.

For the mission, Hansen is carrying four Moon-shaped pendants, each with a birthstone representing his wife and three teenage children.

His blue spacesuit has a mission patch he commissioned Anishinaabe artist Henry Guimond to design, with contributions from Dave Courchene III of Sagkeeng First Nation, Manitoba.

The heptagonal shape and the animals on it refer to a set of indigenous teachings that guide how people should treat one another - with love, respect, courage and humility.

Hansen has said the patch is his way of recognising the Indigenous peoples in Canada and their traditional knowledge.

Earlier this week, he told the BBC science editor Rebecca Morelle and 13 Minutes podcast presenter Tim Peake that he was excited for his first views of Earth during his first hour of space flight.

He anticipated that the mission would later afford him a view with the Moon in the foreground and Earth hanging in the distance.

"I hope humanity will stop for a moment when four humans are on the far side of the Moon, and just look at some of the imagery that we are sharing - and just be reminded that we can do a better job as humans of just lifting each other up," he said.

"Not destroying but creating together."

The United States has lifted sanctions on Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez.

The move comes less than three months after US forces seized the country's previous leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife in a military raid in Caracas and took them to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

Rodríguez, a close ally of Maduro who served as his vice-president, had been placed on the sanctions list in 2018, with the US accusing her of undermining democracy.

She was sworn in as interim president by Venezuela's National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro loyalists, days after the US raid and has been described by Trump as "a terrific person".

Rodríguez welcomed her removal from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List.

Those named on the list have their assets in the United States blocked and US nationals are barred from doing business from them.

In a post on X, Rodríguez called it "a significant step in the right direction to normalise and strengthen relations between our countries".

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the move showed the progress that had been made "between our two countries to promote stability, support economic recovery, and advance political reconciliation in Venezuela".

"As President Trump has said, Delcy Rodríguez is doing a great job and is working with the United States very well," Kelly added.

Opposition activists in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, however, were critical of the move, arguing that the US should exert pressure on Rodríguez to release all political prisoners still held in the country's jails.

The release of political prisoners had been one of the key demands US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had made of Rodríguez in the wake of Maduro's removal.

And while the National Assembly has passed an amnesty law and hundreds of detainees have been freed, prisoners' rights group Foro Penal says that almost 500 political prisoners remain behind bars.

The lifting of sanctions is the latest sign of warming relations between the Trump administration and Rodríguez's team.

Earlier this week, the US officially reopened its embassy in Caracas, seven years after closing it.

A Venezuelan diplomatic team has also been dispatched to the US to reopen its embassy in Washington.

In the months since Maduro's removal from office, several high-level US delegations have travelled to Venezuela to discuss how the US can expand its access to Venezuela's oil and mineral wealth.

Critics of Rodríguez however have bemoaned the fact that there has been little talk of democratic elections.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado, who has been living in exile since leaving Venezuela to collect the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in December, met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday.

Despite having been sidelined by Trump in favour of Rodríguez, Machado struck an optimistic note, calling the meeting "excellent" and praising the secretary of state's "dedication to democracy, freedom and Venezuelans' well-being".

Speaking to Fox News after the meeting, Rubio insisted that the US was making progress in Venezuela.

Pointing to the three-prong plan he said the US was pursuing, he assured viewers that Venezuela had moved into the second phase: that of recovery.

"Ultimately, there will have to be a transition phase. There will have to be free and fair elections in Venezuela, and that point has to come," he said.

"It's not forever, but we have to be patient, but we also can't be complacent," he said without giving an indication as to when elections could be held in Venezuela.

A 19th Century painting by iconic artist Raja Ravi Varma has become the most expensive Indian artwork ever sold, setting a new auction record.

The painting, Yashoda and Krishna, was sold for 1.67bn rupees ($17.9m; £13.6m) at a Saffronart auction in Delhi on Wednesday. It beat the previous record set by MF Husain's Untitled (Gram Yatra) which fetched $13.8m last year.

The surge in sales and records highlight growing demand for Indian and South Asian art, with collectors pushing prices to new highs.

Varma, who was born in 1848 in what is now the southern state of Kerala, is widely regarded as a pioneer of modern Indian painting and one of the most influential artists from the subcontinent.

The painting was bought by billionaire businessman Cyrus Poonawalla, founder and managing director of Serum Institute of India, one of the world's largest vaccine producers.

In a statement released by Saffronart, Poonawalla described the work as a "national treasure", adding that it "deserves to be made available for public viewing periodically".

"It will be my endeavour to facilitate this going forward," he said.

Varma's works have been classified as "art treasure" under India's Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, which means that they cannot be exported and can be sold only to Indian buyers.

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Minal Vazirani, president and co-founder of Saffronart, said that the valuation was a "powerful reminder of the enduring cultural and emotional resonance of Indian art".

Ashish Anand, CEO and managing director of DAG (formerly Delhi Art Gallery), said that the impact of the record sale would percolate down to the art market, "giving rise to Indian art being viewed as a serious financial asset and beyond its value for aesthetics and personal delight".

According to Saffronart's catalogue, the work was put up for auction by a private collector.

Varma's realistic depictions of scenes from Hindu epics and mythology are widely recognised in India - so much so that prints of his works are often found in household shrines.

Yashoda and Krishna is an oil-on-canvas painting from the 1890s, when Varma was at the height of his career. It portrays a sweet moment between Hindu deity Krishna as a child and his foster mother Yashoda.

In the painting, Yashoda is seen milking a cow, while Krishna stands beside her holding a cup and waiting. The child has a mischievous look in his eyes while Yashoda's face reflects warmth and care. Their ornaments are minimal, but intricately detailed.

"Varma's genius lies in this very balance: the sacred rendered through the familiar," the Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation, which promotes and preserves Varma's legacy, wrote in an Instagram post last month, before the auction.

"The textures of silk, the gleam of jewellery, the softness of skin and the gentle stillness of the cow together create a scene that is both devotional and intimate."

The image of Krishna and Yashoda has long inspired artists across South Asia, who have depicted them in songs, temple carvings and local painting traditions. But Varma portrayed them in a more natural way, as art historians have noted.

Artist A Ramachandran wrote that while an "iconographical image of god [usually] evoked awe and not love and affection", Varma changed that, breaking the distance between Krishna and the person looking at the painting.

The record sale also spotlights how collectors are increasingly willing to pay a premium for Indian art which has historical and cultural significance.

Anand of DAG told the BBC that there is a "clear shift in how Indian art is being perceived".

"As the market matures and benchmarks rise, collectors are recognising both its cultural and financial value," he said, adding that fundamentally, it was quality that was driving this momentum.

"The best works - those with provenance, rarity and historical significance - are now commanding extraordinary prices, reflecting the maturing of the market."

Experts add that exclusivity is also pushing prices higher. Many masterpieces by artists such as Varma, Amrita Sher-Gil and VS Gaitonde are either in private collections or rarely come up for auction.

There is also a growing recognition of mythology as a serious and desirable genre within the global art market, Anand said.

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The brother of Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi says he fears her life is in imminent danger after she suffered a suspected heart attack in prison in north-western Iran.

Hamidreza Mohammadi, who is based in Norway, told the BBC that the 53-year-old human rights activist was found unconscious in her bed by fellow inmates at Zanjan Prison last week.

She was taken to the prison infirmary but officials refused to transfer her to a hospital despite her history of heart and lung problems, he said. She also suffers from severe blood pressure fluctuations.

He demanded that she be released immediately for a thorough medical examination.

He also warned that strikes and explosions near the prison since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran a month ago had only added to her stress.

"This war has had a terrible effect on prisoners in Iran. If the prison gets hit, if the prisoners need immediate medical attention, they will not get anything and their lives are in danger," he told the BBC's Newsday programme.

"It's been really difficult for her family... Her children have gone through a lot. Now they experience very uncertain time when they don't know even if in the future there will be any peace or if their mother is going to live or die," he added.

Narges Mohammadi, the vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her activism against female oppression in Iran and promoting human rights.

She has spent more than a decade of her life in prison. In 2021, she began serving a 13-year sentence on charges of committing "propaganda activity against the state" and "collusion against state security", which she denied.

In December 2024, she was given a temporary release from Tehran's notorious Evin prison on medical grounds.

She continued campaigning while undergoing treatment and was arrested in the north-eastern city of Mashhad last December after giving a speech at the memorial ceremony of a fellow human rights activist. Her family said she was taken to hospital after being beaten on the head and neck during the arrest.

A few weeks later protests against Iran's clerical establishment swept across the country. At least 6,508 protesters were killed and 53,000 others arrested in an unprecedented crackdown by security forces on the unrest, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

In early February, Mohammadi was sentenced by a Revolutionary Court in Mashhad to an additional seven and a half years in prison after being convicted of "gathering and collusion" and "propaganda activities", her lawyer said.

She was transferred without warning the following week to Zanjan prison and has been allowed only limited communication with her family since then.

Last Sunday, her legal team and one family member were allowed to visit to visit her in prison under heightened surveillance.

The Free Narges Coalition said in a statement on Tuesday that "her general health was extremely poor, and she appeared pale and weak with significant weight loss when brought to the visitation room by a prison nurse".

It then cited Mohammadi's cellmates as saying that on 24 March she "was found unconscious in her bed, with her eyes rolled back", and that this lasted more than an hour. She was carried to the prison infirmary by fellow inmates, where medication was administered to restore her consciousness, it added.

"Despite this medical emergency, and evident indications of a heart attack, authorities refused to transfer Mohammadi to a hospital or allow her to visit a specialist."

Mohammadi also reported that she had suffered debilitating headaches, nausea, double vision since her violent arrest, and that bruises were still visible on her body, according to the coalition.

"According to the Iranian law, in wartime, when they [authorities] cannot guarantee safety of the prisoners, especially prisoners who are not dangerous to society, they must be allowed to leave the prison until the war is over," Hamidreza Mohammadi said.

"But not only [have they not done] it, they have denied all the political prisoners any medical attention, and their excuse is 'it is wartime'. So our demand is that she immediately be released for a thorough medical examination."

"We know her medical history, we know that she has heart problems and pulmonary problems. She must be in a hospital."

Four children have been "brutally stabbed and killed" at a school in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, the police have said.

"The suspect has been apprehended, and the motive behind the killings is still under investigation," Uganda's police force added in a brief statement on X.

The school has been named as the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Program school in the capital's Makindye Division.

More details will be provided later, it added.

Uganda's Daily Monitor newspaper is quoting local residents as saying that the suspect posed as a parent to get into the school and then after talking to the administrator attacked the children. The victims were between the ages of two and three, the newspaper adds.

Videos of the aftermath being shared on social media show images of crowds of angry and distressed people.

The suspect was quickly apprehended to "prevent him from being lynched", local journalist Erich Mboowa has reported on X.

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You could almost hear a sigh of relief from Nasa on Wednesday as its Artemis II rocket finally blasted off.

There's a lot riding on this mission - the safety of its four astronauts, Nasa's reputation, and the credibility of America's claim to be leading the new global space race.

There are mundane questions too: Could the onboard toilet break again? When can the crew nap?

Here's what the next 24 hours should look like for Artemis II.

Where are the astronauts now?

Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are now orbiting Earth about 42,500 miles away, testing out the Orion spacecraft.

The craft's solar wings were fully deployed not long after launch, giving it power to help sustain its journey.

About the size of a minibus, its never been flown in space before by humans so pilot Victor Glover is spending the day pushing it to the extreme.

Nasa want to be sure Orion is voyage-worthy before the crew push on into deep space from where there is no easy return.

They're testing out the life support systems too. But if something goes wrong, the crew has specially-designed suits that could keep them alive for around six days.

What are the crew doing?

Unlike the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s, we can watch a huge amount of what's happening on this voyage as Nasa livestreams the mission.

Cameras above the astronauts' heads show them checking monitors, holding up mobile phones, and pressing buttons.

Then about eight hours after launch, the crew were allowed their first sleep onboard.

On the radio the crew use to communicate with mission command, we heard Commander Reid Wiseman asking where are the team's pyjamas.

He asked for their "comfort garments", before the astronauts went into the sleeping area for about four hours.

Schedules in space are incredibly strict. Every minute is accounted for by Mission Control.

The crew can sleep for about four hours at a time, adding up to eight hours over a 24-hour period.

Sleeping in space can be tricky. The crew must strap themselves in, and generally some astronauts struggle to nod off as their bodies adapt to weightlessness.

But others say their best sleep ever is in space.

This crew have strict instructions to exercise for 30 minutes every day to protect their muscle and bone density as they live without gravity.

Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover went first, testing out Orion's "flywheel exercise device", which is about the size of a carry-on suitcase.

Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen were scheduled to exercise later on - using the wheel for rowing, squats and deadlifts.

We assume they've had their first meals too, from Nasa's tailor-made Artemis II menu.

There is no fridge in Orion, so a lot of the food is freeze-dried and activated using water from an onboard tap.

The crew were allowed to pick their meals in advance, which include macaroni cheese, beef brisket, and five different hot sauces.

They're allowed two drinks a day, including coffee or a "chocolate breakfast drink".

And crucially, as far as we know, the toilet is working. During launch, the facilities broke, raising worries that the team would have to spend 10 days in a craft without a toilet.

After giving astronaut Christina Koch instructions on how to fix the specially-designed loo, Mission Control radioed the crew: "Happy to report that toilet is go for use.... We do recommend letting the system get to operating speed before donating fluid".

When do they go to the Moon?

Today is building up to the snazzily named "trans-lunar injection" burn. Basically, it is a massive push that will propel them out of Earth's orbit and on course to the Moon.

It is supposed to happen Thursday night UK time, but if there are problems, it could be postponed or even cancelled.

A cancellation would be a major setback for Nasa and America as it tries to become the first country to land humans again on the lunar surface by 2028.

If it all goes to plan, the burn will fire for six minutes to send them on a trajectory around the Moon that also uses lunar gravity to slingshot them back to Earth.

Eventually they should fly 6,400 miles (10,299km) beyond the far side of the Moon, which always faces away from the Earth.

That's meant to happen on Monday (6 April). The astronauts will be the first people to see some areas of the far side, although probes from countries including India and China have previously documented this region.

They'll be taking photographs and making observations of this mysterious place for us to see and learn from back on Earth.

A funeral director has admitted preventing the burials of 30 bodies and stealing donations made to charities by mourners.

Robert Bush, 48, was arrested after police investigated Hull-based Legacy Independent Funeral Directors following a report of "concern for care of the deceased" in March 2024.

Bush, formerly of East Yorkshire and now living in West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, and one of theft relating to charitable donations.

He previously admitted presenting families with the ashes of strangers and fraudulently selling funeral plans. He will be sentenced at a later date.

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King Charles III and Queen Camilla have been taking part in the annual Maundy service in north Wales, only the second time the service has been held in Wales in its 800-year history.

The King and Queen attended the service at St Asaph Cathedral, Denbighshire, in a ceremony featuring music by Welsh composers and musicians.

The event takes place annually on the final Thursday before Easter Sunday and commemorates the Last Supper and the importance of humility and service to others.

The Dean of St Asaph Cathedral, Nigel Williams, said they were "deeply honoured" to host the service, hoping it would be a "memorable experience" for those who attended.

The first recorded Royal Maundy service was held in 1210 by King John and commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, with the distribution of alms becoming a tradition.

Charles will present gifts to 77 men and 77 women from Wales and other dioceses across the UK in recognition of outstanding Christian service and for helping people in their communities.

Recipients will be given two purses – a white purse including a set of specially minted silver Maundy coins totalling 77 pennies, to match the King's age, and a red pursue containing a £5 coin marking 100 years since the late Queen's birth, as well as a 50p coin celebrating the 50th anniversary of The King's Trust charity.

The last time the Maundy Service was held in Wales was in 1982 in St Davids, Pembrokeshire.

Grahame Davies, director of mission for Church in Wales, said it was "hugely significant" for the service to be held in north Wales for the first time.

The Bishop of St Asaph, Gregory Cameron, said the Royal Maundy was a "deeply meaningful occasion which we are pleased to welcome to St Asaph".

He admitted he was "nervous" about leading the "ancient" service on Maundy Thursday which marks the day of the last supper when Jesus washed his disciples' feet.

The Cross of Wales, a gift from the King to the Christians of Wales, will be used in the service. The Cross headed the King's 2023 coronation at Westminster Abbey.

Among those who will receive gifts from the King are Susan and Roger Whitehouse from Tywyn, Gwynedd.

The couple said they were "very surprised" to be recognised together, having never sought recognition for their service.

"We've simply tried to serve where needed," they said.

"Our faith informs what we do and why we do it, and it has drawn us deeper into the life of the church while also helping us look outward to the wider community."

Crowds lined the high street in St Asaph ahead of the royal couple's arrival, while graffiti saying "Not our King" was also covered up at the cathedral before the visit.

Workers in hi-vis jackets were seen attempting to remove the message which was sprayed using red paint on a wall in the grounds of the cathedral.

A small group of republican protesters with flags and banners calling for the end of the monarchy also gathered across the road from the cathedral as the King and Queen arrived.

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Nasa's target of a March launch for the first crewed mission around the Moon in more than 50 years has been delayed after a fault was detected.

Nasa had set a target of 6 March, but 24 hours later said the newly discovered fault made a March launch "out of consideration".

The Artemis II mission, which will last about 10 days, could take its astronauts further into space than anyone has been before.

It aims to set the stage for an eventual human landing on the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s.

When will Artemis II launch?

With a March launch no longer being considered, the next possible dates are April 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

A potential February launch was ruled out after a pre‑flight test - known as a wet dress rehearsal - was cut short when hydrogen rocket fuel leaked from an umbilical connection linking the launch tower to the rocket.

Beyond resolving the technical issues, mission planners also have to wait until the Moon is in the right part of its orbit, so launch windows are timed accordingly.

In practice, this creates a pattern of roughly one week at the start of each month when the rocket can be pointed in the right direction, followed by about three weeks with no launch opportunities.

Who are the Artemis II crew?

Artemis II's crew of four is made up of Nasa commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch. A second mission specialist, Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, will also be on board.

Wiseman is a US Navy veteran of 27 years. A pilot and engineer, he lives in Baltimore, Maryland. He was selected as an astronaut by Nasa in 2009 and served as Flight Engineer aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for Expedition 41 in 2014.

Glover was selected as a Nasa astronaut in 2013. He previously served as the pilot of SpaceX Crew-1 and holds three master's degrees. He was born in California and is married with four children.

Koch grew up in Michigan and became an astronaut in 2013. She worked on the International Space Station in 2019, setting a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. She also participated in the first all-female spacewalk.

Hansen joined the Canadian Space Agency in 2009 after a career as a fighter pilot. He became the first Canadian to lead astronaut training at Nasa's Johnson Space Centre and will be the first Canadian to go to the Moon.

What will the Artemis crew do during the Moon mission?

The mission involves the first crewed flight of Nasa's gigantic Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion space capsule.

Once they are safely in orbit, the astronauts will test how the Orion handles. This will involve manually flying the capsule in Earth orbit to practise steering and lining up the spacecraft for future Moon landings.

They will then head out to a point thousands of kilometres beyond the Moon to check Orion's life‑support, propulsion, power and navigation systems.

The crew will also act as medical test subjects, sending back data and imagery from deep space.

They will work in a small cabin in weightlessness. Radiation levels will be higher than on the ISS, which is in low‑Earth orbit, but still safe.

On return to Earth, the astronauts will experience a bumpy return through the atmosphere and a splashdown off the west coast of the US, in the Pacific.

Will Artemis II land on the Moon?

No. This mission is to lay the ground for a lunar landing by astronauts in the Artemis III mission.

Nasa says the launch of Artemis III will take place by 2028. But experts believe that is a very ambitious timeline.

The final choice of a spacecraft to take the crew down to the lunar surface has not yet been made. It will either be SpaceX's Starship lander or a craft designed by Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin.

New spacesuits made by US company Axiom are also not ready.

When Artemis III finally flies, the astronauts will be heading to the Moon's south pole.

After this, the aim is to have a sustained human presence on the Moon.

Artemis IV and V will begin building Gateway, a small space station circling the Moon. That will be followed by more Moon landings, extra sections being added to Gateway, and new robotic rovers operating on the surface.

More countries will be involved in keeping people living and working on and around the Moon for longer periods.

When was the last Moon mission?

The last crewed Moon mission was Apollo 17, which landed in December 1972 and returned to Earth later that month.

In all, 24 astronauts have travelled to the Moon and 12 of them have walked on its surface, all during the Apollo programme. Of the 24 to have been to the Moon, just five are still alive.

America first went in the 1960s, primarily to beat the Soviet Union to assert its geopolitical and technological dominance. Once that goal was achieved, political enthusiasm and public interest ebbed, as did the money for future Moonshots.

The Artemis programme grew out of a desire to return humans to the Moon, but this time for a longer-term presence built around new technology and commercial partnerships.

Do other countries plan to send astronauts to the Moon?

Several other countries have ambitions to put people on the Moon in the 2030s.​

European astronauts are set to join later Artemis missions and Japan has also secured seats.

China is building its own craft, targeting a first landing near the Moon's south pole by 2030.

Russia continues to talk about flying cosmonauts to the surface and building a small base sometime between about 2030 and 2035. However, sanctions, funding pressures and technical setbacks mean its timetable is highly optimistic.

India has also expressed ambitions to one day see its own astronauts walking on the Moon.

Following the success of Chandrayaan 3's landing near the lunar south pole in August 2023, India's space agency set out a goal of sending astronauts to the Moon by about 2040. This would be part of a push to move its human spaceflight programme beyond low Earth orbit.

Additional reporting by Kevin Church and Emily Selvadurai.

Warning: This article contains details some people may find distressing.

Tristan Essex says his memories of his nana, Jessie Stockdale, are now "tainted" after funeral director Robert Bush kept her body for five months after her family were told her funeral had taken place.

Bush, who ran Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull, has admitted a series of offences, including preventing the burials of 30 bodies, after police uncovered widespread wrongdoing at the business.

According to Tristan, with the benefit of hindsight, there had been warning signs.

"There was an awful smell in the funeral directors," he recalled. "My grandma was changed into different coffins every time we viewed her, and we obviously picked a specific coffin.

"She was put into larger coffins which were wider, longer, different colours, different trims. She was in at least three or four different coffins.

"We complained because the frill on the coffin was splattered with blood.

"There was black, thick mould around the inside of the coffin as well."

Victims and their families have been waiting for justice since the investigation began two years ago.

Bush, 48, specialised in low-cost funerals and claimed on his company's social media to offer "dignified personal care".

Behind the scenes, officers found a very different picture.

Humberside Police described its inquiry as "complex, protracted and highly sensitive", triggered by a report of "concern for care of the deceased" in March 2024.

Within days, 35 bodies and half a tonne of human ashes were recovered from the firm's premises on Hessle Road in Hull.

The body of Tristan's grandmother, Jessie, was among those discovered.

Tristan, 26, said his family were "knocked off our feet" when they were told Jessie was a victim.

"Thirty-five bodies were found inside Legacy and one of them had an ankle bracelet with my nana's name on," he said.

• Funeral director admits preventing burials of 30 bodies

Bush had been due to stand trial in October, but during a hearing at Hull Crown Court on Thursday he admitted 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial.

He also pleaded guilty to one charge of stealing money from charity collection boxes.

The admissions followed others in October last year, when Bush pleaded guilty to 35 offences of fraud by false representation, relating to the proper care of remains and the return of ashes. Four of the charges related to giving women ashes that he falsely claimed were those of their unborn babies.

He also previously admitted a charge of fraudulently running a business. This related to the sale of funeral plans. There were 172 victims relating to this count alone.

In total, there were 254 victims of Bush's crimes, police said.

Many families were distraught to learn ashes they were given did not belong to their loved ones.

Some had unwittingly worn the ashes of strangers close to their body in the form of specially made jewellery.

One told us how a friend had the ashes mixed with tattoo ink and pushed deep into their skin.

Bush's disregard for the dead and their families did not end there.

More than 1,000 items, including love letters, baby clothes and treasured possessions belonging to the victims were found on the funeral director's premises, a crisis response team told the BBC.

"It was like a hoarder's house," said Kevin Curreri of Kenyon Emergency Services.

The team is typically brought in by governments in the wake of natural disasters, plane crashes and terrorism incidents.

This time, it was appointed by Hull City Council to recover the scene, after police had finished with it.

According to Curreri, human remains and personal possessions had been treated "so disrespectfully" that it showed "a pretty significant breach of trust".

Following the police searches, floral tributes were left outside the parlour.

Some of the notes attached to them demonstrated the unbridled rage felt towards the person responsible for causing this close-knit community so much heartache.

In stark contrast to Bush's large detached home in Kirk Ella – a desirable village in the East Riding of Yorkshire – his funeral business, which opened in 2010, stood in Hessle Road, a working-class street that was once the beating heart of Hull's fishing industry.

Bush hid behind a veneer of respectability, his neighbours painting a picture of a family man who was willing to run errands and help complete DIY tasks for them.

Professionally, too, nothing appeared to be too much trouble for Bush, with some of his customers telling the BBC how he had offered them the chance to pay him in installments when they told him they were struggling to cover a relative's funeral costs.

One woman said Bush had personally bought their funeral flowers when they ran out of money.

"I just felt so grateful," she said. "I didn't ask questions."

Emma Hardy, MP for Hull West and Haltemprice, said Bush had deliberately pushed low-cost funerals at a vulnerable community.

"He pretended he was their friend," she said.

Bush was anything but.

Not even charities escaped his greed.

Bush stole an unknown amount of cash from charity collection boxes. The donations, in memory of loved ones, were made at funeral services Bush organised.

Families believed the money would go directly to causes close to their hearts.

But it did not.

Between September 2017 and 6 March 2024, a number of good causes, including the Salvation Army, Macmillan Cancer Support, Dove House Hospice, Help for Heroes, the RNLI and Oakwood Dog Rescue were deprived of their funds.

More than 170 people bought non-existent funeral plans through Legacy, including 70-year-old Kevin Newton.

He paid £2,239 in 2012 for his plan.

Kevin said he was "mortified" when he contacted a third-party insurer and was told there was no trace of the plan on its database.

His daughter, Kerry, 36, said: "It's absolutely shocking because it's a lot of money for my dad to fork out and it's not like he can [afford it] again.

"It's unforgivable."

Kevin was able to recover the money as he paid using a card.

The funeral business was dissolved at a court hearing in May 2024 with debts of more than £40,000.

Bush has been bailed to be sentenced on 27 July.

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A woman has told the BBC how she was "trapped" in her Travelodge hotel room for an hour last summer while a naked man banged on her door and performed "vile" sex acts in the corridor.

Wendy Griffith is among a growing number of guests who believe the chain has failed to take "alarming" experiences seriously "for years" and has been consistently "fobbing people off".

Dozens of people have shared their stories after the BBC revealed how a woman woke up to a man sexually assaulting her in her bed at the chain's Maidenhead branch in 2022 after staff gave him a key card and her room number.

A Travelodge spokesperson said it was "deeply sorry" to hear about Wendy Griffth's experience. Earlier this week, Travelodge's CEO, Jo Boydell, apologised to people that have had "frightening" experiences.

The company, which is based in Thame, Oxfordshire, said it had already "strengthened" its room access policy.

Marketing consultant Wendy Griffith, from Norfolk, was staying at Travelodge London Stratford in July 2025 when she said a man started banging on her door.

She then witnessed him through the door's peephole performing sex acts.

She recalled "rising panic" over the hour as she was "essentially trapped" in the middle of the night trying and failing "multiple times" to contact hotel staff.

With no room phone and no emergency contact number in her room, she used her mobile to try and call the Travelodge website number.

She said she was "incredibly traumatised and not able to summon help", then dialled 999 in desperation.

"The police were incredible," she remembered, "given I was a female staying in a hotel room on my own, three cars pulled up within five minutes to arrest the man.

"It was a very dramatic scene, he attempted to run back in his room, barricade the door, the police had to force their way in, use pepper spray."

The man, Trevor Reece, 40, pleaded guilty to outraging public decency in September 2025.

He was sentenced by magistrates to four months of alcohol dependency treatment and ordered to pay £185 court costs and £50 compensation to his victim, which she says has yet to be paid.

"The impact that has resulted in terms of the psychological impact, the flashbacks, the impact to my business, my livelihood, all of it, and my situation was not as extreme as the lady in the Travelodge Maidenhead hotel," Wendy Griffth told the BBC.

"When I saw the story break recently, I broke down in tears because it was validation - that other people were experiencing these issues with Travelodge - and just complete and utter devastation that that had happened to that woman.

"That could have potentially happened to me and that's what keeps me awake at night."

She subsequently discovered, during a lull in the hour she was targeted, her tormentor - who was also a hotel guest - had gone to reception and asked for a replacement room key but gave her room number instead of his own.

"That moment when the desk clerk said 'he asked for a key to your room' the blood drained from my body," she recalled.

She said he was only refused as the clerk told her he knew the man was a long staying guest and the number he gave was not his own room.

She insisted Travelodge's responses to her subsequent complaints, which the BBC has seen, have been "categorically not good enough" and she feels "dismissed" and "palmed off".

She said no-one from Travelodge "proactively" offered her a refund, she had to chase them and her case was "pushed out" to the firm's insurers which denied liability.

She also believes CEO Jo Boydell's response to the 2022 Maidenhead attack has been "poor" and was shocked to hear her admit to not being aware of it until the attacker's trial at the end of 2025.

"To take so long to respond," she said, "and now only under media scrutiny and pressure and the fact that their business looks bad," she said.

"If there is ever a situation in your hotel where the police have become involved, that should be an automatic escalation to the CEO for a formal investigation."

A Travelodge spokesperson said: "We were deeply sorry to hear about the distressing experience Ms Griffith had at our London Stratford hotel and our handling of her case.

"We have since rolled out training to all of our hotels to ensure that the hotel phone number is on every key card wallet given to a customer so they can reach our team at any time, day or night."

A growing number of MPs have also demanded better hotel safety procedures and the privately-owned hotel chain's crisis over guest safety continues to escalate.

The BBC has been contacted by people who have been "terrified" by "strangers" coming into their rooms and many have provided evidence of their subsequent complaints to Travelodge and direct emails to its CEO.

Others have reported accidentally walking into occupied rooms after being given the wrong room key.

The guests said Travelodge's responses had been "lacking", "dismissive", "totally uninterested" and "appalling".

One described three room key mistakes in one night.

Charlotte Bingley, from Birmingham, checked into a Travelodge in the south west of England in February and within an hour an "intimidating" staff member entered her room without knocking.

"I've never been so scared in my life," she said, "I really thought he was going to really hurt me and I was [shouting] 'just get out of the room'."

She said it took "ages for him to leave" and as there was no inside lock on her door, she was "petrified" he would "come back in the middle of the night", so she left.

She described the company's response to her repeated complaints - which the BBC has seen - as "despicable".

A Travelodge spokesperson said: "Our response to Ms Bingley was wholly inappropriate and we are very sorry.

"The team member has since been dismissed and no longer works for the business

"Any case of unauthorised access to a guest's room is a significant cause for concern and what happened to Ms Bingley was very upsetting and shouldn't have happened."

Gordon Hollingsworth, from Essex, said a stranger walked into his and his "horrified" wife's room at midnight at Travelodge Leatherhead in January.

He recalled the unknown man being "as stunned as I was", having been given the key to the couple's room by staff.

He said he rarely writes complaints, but was so shocked by the "lack of organisational care and procedure", he contacted Travelodge because he "could see the very obvious threat".

He "took exception" to how they responded and said: "They just glossed over it. With no mitigations in place to prevent reoccurrence... that will repeat itself."

A Travelodge spokesperson said: "Any case of an unauthorised person entering a guest's room is a significant cause for concern and what happened to Mr Hollingsworth and his family was very upsetting and shouldn't have happened and we have apologised for this."

Sophia Farley, from Bournemouth, was also dissatisfied by Travelodge's reaction to her complaints about "dark figures" appearing in her room at night at the London Belvedere in June 2025.

She emailed CEO Jo Boydell spelling out that she was "shaken and frightened" and stressed her customer service team's initial reply "minimises what was a significant safeguarding failure" and was "wholly insufficient".

She told the BBC when she heard about the Maidenhead attack: "My first thought was, if that happened years ago, why did that then happen to me?

"Nowhere near as bad for me as it was for that poor young woman, but it could have been."

A Travelodge spokesperson said: "Our initial response to Ms Farley was inappropriate.

"In a subsequent response, our Customer Services team apologised profusely to Ms Farley for what happened during her stay, acknowledged her experience and confirmed we had retrained the hotel team. We subsequently processed a full refund of her stay at her request."

In response to growing numbers of people reporting safety issues at the hotel chain, Wendy Griffiths said she felt a "responsibility" to speak up.

"If this many incidences are occurring of reported cases, what is not being reported because women are too afraid to come forward?" she said.

"I want compensation for not just myself, but for [other] victims and I want to make sure that this doesn't happen to other women."

She did receive a "profound and sincere apology" from Travelodge London Stratford's manager and her calls for improvements prompted the hotel to print a staff contact number on its key card holders.

A Travelodge spokesperson said: "We have recently commissioned an independent review which will look at every aspect of our room security procedures and in the meantime we have also strengthened our room access policy and brought in additional training for colleagues.

"Our focus remains on ensuring that everyone feels safe when staying in our hotels."

If you have been affected by issues in this story, BBC Action Line has details of available support.

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