Derby man jailed for storing pensioners body in chest freezer
The court heard how Damion Johnson "was overwhelmed in grief" for his deceased friend John Wainwright
A carer from Derby who stored his deceased friend's body in freezer for two years has been jailed.
Damion Johnson, a former healthcare assistant at Royal Derby Hospital was sentenced to two years in prison, after admitting to preventing the lawful and decent burial of the body of John Wainwright.
He was also sentenced for three counts of fraud.
John Wainwright, 71, died in September 2018 and was not found until August 2020 in the freezer on the premises of a skip company in Warwickshire.
Prosecutor Darron Whitehead said that Johnson, 53, had known Mr Wainwright for 27 years and moved in with him into a flat in Cleveland Tower, Holloway Head, in Birmingham city centre, in 2015 as his registered carer.
The pair were described by a friend as having a "strong friendship" and Johnson described Mr Wainwright as a father figure, telling police after his arrest that he was "overcome by grief" following the death.
The prosecution said that "he was not thinking rationally and was not ready to let go of Mr Wainwright", leading him to store Wainwright's body in a two feet by three feet freezer,
Johnson told relatives and friends that Mr Wainwright had died and that the funeral had already taken place, but did not inform the emergency services or obtain a death certificate.
At one stage, a friend of Mr Wainwright stayed at the flat while the pensioner's body was stored in the freezer in the same room.
In December 2019 the defendant was arrested for unrelated matters, and while police did not search the property, they barred Johnson from returning, and the flat was boarded up with the freezer unplugged inside.
Several people later attended the flat to conduct safety checks and noted a strong smell, described as "horrendous" and "unbearable".
On August 21 2020, a removal team took the freezer away, mistaking the smell rotting food before Mr Wainwright's body was found by staff at Budget Skips Services Ltd in Exhall, Warwickshire.
A post-mortem examination, conducted on August 26 2020, noted signs of blunt force trauma, but Mr Whitehead said: "It was not possible to confirm or exclude natural disease as a cause or contributor to death."
Johnson also used Mr Wainwright's bank card to buy goods and withdraw cash worth £17,000 and made 11 transfers to his bank account worth an more than £2000.
Johnson initially admitted preventing a burial but denied fraud, before pleading guilty to the fraud offences in August.
The court heard Johnson had previously worked as a carer and a healthcare assistant at the Royal Derby Hospital and there was an "informal agreement" with Mr Wainwright that whoever died first would still be able to access the funds, which were in a joint account.
Jailing Johnson, of Sun Street, Derby, Judge Shaun Smith KC said preventing a burial was an "unusual offence" but that he was "not suggesting at all" that the defendant had any involvement in Mr Wainwright's death.
He said: "Had you accepted his death and gone about it in a normal way, he would have received a good and decent burial.
"That was not what you did. You bought a chest freezer, a deliberate act on your part. You knew what you were going to do.
"Everything you did facilitated the hiding of that body. Nothing you did contributed to it being found.
"This is an offence which is so serious that the only appropriate punishment can be achieved by immediate custody.
"It is an offence which is a serious affront to public standards of decency and you must serve that sentence and it cannot be suspended."
Johnson was jailed for two years for preventing a burial, and was given concurrent six-month sentences for each of the three fraud charges.