Daughter secretly buried dad in Powys back garden after rejecting medical help

A daughter carried out an illegal "Stone Age" burial for her father after rejecting modern medical help, an inquest has heard.

Eirys Brett, 32, and her father Donald Brett, 78, lived a "particularly alternative" off-grid lifestyle and decided not to seek NHS care when he fell ill.

The inquest at Pontypridd Coroners Court heard Mr Brett died and was left propped up in his favourite chair next to a woodburner for a number of days while his daughter and her partner dug a 6ft grave in the back garden.

Mr Brett was buried in a red and turquoise bobble hat, red t-shirt and harlequin chef trousers. His body was wrapped in a hessian cotton blanket with rope wrapped in a cross pattern with paintbrushes, flowers and a poem in the grave.

Investigating officer Det Con Alex Stuart said: “They had a ritual. He was not thrown in, he was strategically placed, it was a Stone or Bronze Age sort of burial, then they covered the hole.”

The inquest heard in the weeks before his death Mr Brett messaged his daughter to say: "Maybe I should get NHS treatment" when he started suffering abdominal pain at home.

Miss Brett and her partner Mark Watson, 47, advised him against seeing a doctor and told him to take alternative medicines.

Mr Brett came to stay at their home so they could help him but he became "quite unwell" and died a short time later.

The inquest heard Mr Brett wished to be buried at his home, so the couple put his body in their car to drive to his cottage in June 2019.

DC Stuart said they put Mr Brett in his favourite chair before digging his grave 100 metres away from the house he had lived in for over 25 years in Aberedw, near Builth Wells, Powys.

DC Stuart said: "They started to dig around a 6ft burial site. It was not particularly wide. They dug it down over a number of days while Mr Brett was in his house."

The inquest heard the alarm was raised by Mr Brett's landlord after he had not been seen for weeks.

A search was launched before Miss Brett and Mr Watson were pulled over by police in the car they had used to transport Mr Brett's body.

The couple were interviewed by police in August 2019 before admitting that they had carried out an illegal burial without registering the death.

'Anti-establishment'

DC Stuart said: "They both pinpointed pretty much the same place where he had been buried.

"It was a full and frank admission from the start. They both made full admissions that he was unlawfully buried."

The inquest heard phone records showed Mr Brett relied on his daughter for advice on treatments when he became unwell.

Miss Brett told police that she believed her dad had been suffering with prostate cancer and had advised him to take holistic treatments.

But the inquest heard Mr Brett had the capacity to make decisions and was not coerced.

Friends told police that Mr Brett would only seek medical treatment if "absolutely necessary" at his cottage, which had no electricity.

Mr Brett's ex-partner Alison Walker said he was "anti-establishment" and told police her daughter Eirys shared his views.

Ms Walker said she last saw Mr Brett alive in June 2019 when he told her: "Aren't I lucky our daughter is looking after me."

The inquest heard Mr Brett died that month, but his body was not discovered until two months later.

Miss Brett and Mr Watson, of St Harmon, near Rhayader, Powys, were charged and later pleaded guilty to preventing a lawful and decent burial.

They were handed four month suspended sentences at Merthyr Crown Court in July of this year.

'You took every loving care'

Judge Recorder Gregg Bull QC told them: "You took every loving care in burying him. This was not a rushed burial in the dead of night in some underhand way.

"You chose to give him his last rites in what can be best described as some sort of pagan funeral.

"Everybody’s entitled to their beliefs and make no comment about yours. But you should have gone about it in a different way."

The inquest on Wednesday heard a post mortem examination revealed the cause of death as "indeterminate" but there was no evidence of anything other than a natural death.

Assistant coroner Patricia Morgan recorded an open conclusion.

She said: "There is no evidence to suggest that his death was suspicious."

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