TWO York funeral directors who caused "unimaginable grief" when they hid a baby's body in an elderly woman's coffin have succeeded in the first stage of a fight to get their sentences cut.

Mark Eshelby, 48, and Graeme Skidmore, 45, colleagues at Co-operative Funeral Services in York, were both sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, at York Crown Court last June after admitting conspiring to prevent a proper burial.

The pair, who buried the coffin of baby Benjamin Judson, of Holgate, York, empty and then cremated his body alongside that of 85-yearold Evelyn Sayner, of Heworth, York, in a bid to cover up their error, were both also fined £5,000 each.

Their barristers argued today at the Appeal Court in London that the sentences were too harsh.

The court heard they had lost their jobs as a result of their crimes and would have to sell or remortgage their homes in order to pay the fines imposed on them, and a judge granted permission to both Skidmore, of Dunbar, Scotland, and Eshelby, of Holgate, York, to appeal against their sentences.

For more details see The Press.