A coffin-raiding career burglar who ransacked dead bodies before their funerals for jewellery and tipped ashes onto the floor of a funeral parlour has been jailed for two years.
Marc Griffin, 42, also left fridges in the mortuary open and stole the keys to a hearse during the raid on the chapel of rest in Barnstaple, Devon.
He ransacked the Padfields Funeral Service after arriving cut and leaving a trail of blood in his destructive wake.
Griffin then unzipped the body bags of a dead grandmother and a veteran to get at their jewellery and riffled through a grandfather’s funeral clothes.
He also opened coffins, and read a letter which was due to be buried with one of the bodies.
The grieving families said the crimes have ‘magnified the trauma’ of bereavement, made them feel ‘violated’ and ‘sickened’ them.
Griffin, who has a long criminal record with 60 previous burglaries, admitted the recent offences and was jailed for two years and seven months.
Marc Griffin, pictured, 42, also left fridges in the mortuary open and stole the keys to a hearse during the raid on the chapel of rest in Barnstaple, Devon
He ransacked the Pfields Funeral Service (pictured the first office of the mortuary in Barnstaple) after arriving cut and leaving a trail of blood in his destructive wake