A grieving mother has told of how she was forced to collect her ‘deteriorated’ dead baby at 3am from a funeral director’s living room sofa.

Cody Towned tragically gave birth to a stillborn at St James’s Hospital in Leeds, named Marie.

She went to Amie Upton, 38, because she had heard positive things about how the funeral director handled similar cases.

However, after initially being told that her daughter was taken to a funeral home in Headingly, Ms. Towned and her family were shocked to learn that Ms. Upton had instead brought her to her private residence, which was five miles away.

The heartbroken mother has alleged she was forced to pick up her dead baby’s body from Ms Upton’s sofa at 3am.

In a Facebook post, she expressed: “I saw [Marie] the day after she was released from the hospital, and never had the chance to see her again. She took our baby to her house, but the only home she should have been in was ours.”

‘I never got any final moments with my child, she promised me days and days after I could see her.

‘We had to collect her at 3am. I got there…my dead child was laid on her sofa like it’s a normal behaviour.’

Cody Towned (right) has spoken of collecting her child’s dead body from a funeral director’s sofa at 3am

She went to Amie Upton, 38, (pictured) because she had heard positive things about how the funeral director handled similar cases

Pictured: Ms Towned’s stillborn baby in a coffin that they had picked up from Ms Upton’s home

‘She didn’t store her in a cold cot and she deteriorated. I couldn’t see my first and only baby that way, that’s not how I wanted to remember her.

‘I have not denied she was amazing in the hospital because she was. It was when she took my child from the hospital morgue. 

‘So Amie Upton, I was grateful for what you did in the hospital but not for what you did to me, my family and my poor innocent child.’

Ms Upton faces mounting claims she kept dead babies in her living room.

She has already been accused of putting one child’s dead body in a baby bouncer at her terraced home to ‘watch cartoons’.

Mark Sewards, MP for Leeds, explained on BBC Newsnight: “To their disbelief, after being led to believe their daughter was at a funeral home in Headingly, another Leeds area, they found out she was taken to Ms. Upton’s private home, five miles away.”

He continued, “When they arrived to retrieve their daughter’s body, it was clear she had not been treated with the care, respect, and dignity she deserved.”

“Naturally, they reported this to the police, but the authorities found nothing they could act upon, which is one of the most disturbing aspects of this case. This is why I am entirely committed to changing the law for them.”

Ms Towned shared her shocking experience in a Facebook post

The funeral director, banned from Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust’s mortuaries and wards, is seen in her living room, where she allegedly kept the babies.

Zoe Ward (pictured), 32, was left ‘screaming’ in a state of panic after claiming to have seen her dead baby Bleu in Ms Upton’s living room

Ms Ward is pictured with her baby Bleu before he tragically died of brain damage at three weeks old

Zoe Ward, 32, the mother of the baby boy, Bleu, claimed that at the same time another deceased baby was lying on a sofa.

Following complaints from bereaved mothers, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust have announced that Ms Upton has been banned from wards and mortuaries in their hospitals.

A tearful Ms Upton today broke her silence to tell the Daily Mail: ‘The suggestion that I’ve treated these babies with anything less than love and care breaks my heart.’

Speaking at her home in Harehills, Leeds, she added: ‘I lost my own little girl, Florrie, after she was beaten out of me by my ex partner and I have spent my life since then devoted to her memory and to help other mothers deal with their grief.’

‘I know from my own experience that seeing your child treated with care after death is such an important part of the grieving process and I have helped around 80 families who have been going through the worst time of their lives.

‘So to have these complaints made about me hurts so much. I can’t even say how devastated I have been by this because everything I have done has been through care and a need to help other mothers.

‘I still help mothers through my charity, Florrie’s Army, but it’s been four years since I acted as a funeral director for babies.’ 

Ms Ward’s newborn son was just three weeks old when he died of brain damage at Leeds General Infirmary in 2021.

After being led to believe that Ms Towned’s daughter had been taken to a funeral parlor in Headingly, she and her family discovered that Ms Upton had taken her to her private home, five miles away

Pictured: A baby coffin in Ms Upton’s living room

Ms Upton (pictured with a baby coffin) told the Daily Mail: ‘The suggestion that I’ve treated these babies with anything less than love and care breaks my heart’

The 32-year-old asked Florrie’s Army to arrange his funeral after a recommendation from a family friend.

She said the service sounded ‘brilliant’ when she first spoke to Ms Upton, with the charity offering free handprints, photographs, baby clothing and a dedicated funeral service to bereaved parents.

But Ms Ward claims that what followed rocked her to the core and left her ‘screaming’ in horror.

She was led to believe Bleu’s body had been picked up from the hospital by someone on behalf of Florrie’s Army and it was her understanding that his body would be kept in a ‘professional setting’.

However, she claims that when she went round to visit the next day, she saw Ms Upton ‘watching cartoons’ with Bleu’s body next to her in a baby bouncer in the living room – with a second dead infant on the sofa.

The funeral industry is unregulated in England and Wales, meaning there is no legal requirement about how bodies are stored. Funeral directors do not need a qualification to set up a business either. 

The National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) and the National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF) are the two main trade organisations and they have a code of conduct for members who undergo regular inspections.

But Ms Upton has not elected to be a member of either organisation, which are voluntary to join.

Ms Upton (according to her Facebook) set up Florrie’s Army after her own daughter – Florrie – was stillborn at 29 weeks in 2017

Scotland introduced a statutory code of conduct for funeral directors in March.

A recommendation has been made to the government to do the same in England.

Mr Sewards and Ms Townend are now campaigning for better legislation to make sure there is regulation of all funeral directors and make the industry safer.

West Yorkshire Police said it had investigated two reports about Florrie’s Army since 2021, but after ‘extensive enquiries… no potential crimes were identified’.

A spokesperson added: ‘We recognise the concerns raised by these two families will have added to the distress they felt during an already incredibly difficult time. Our thoughts remain with them.’