Pierre Frenette claimed armed officers raided his home, arrested him and his wife, and dug up the body two days after he laid his dad Peter to rest in the grounds of the family home
An engraver to the royal family is suing police after he was arrested for burying his father in the garden.
Pierre Frenette claimed armed officers raided his home and dug up the body two days after he laid his dad Peter to rest in the grounds of the family home, alongside his own dad’s grave. Mr Frenette and his wife Donna were held on suspicion of concealing a body and detained in custody for 36 hours.
Two years later they had not been charged with any offence but have been told police investigations are continuing. The couple are suing the chief constable of Cambridgeshire constabulary along with three officers.
They are claiming “substantial damages” for alleged trespass, false imprisonment and emotional distress. In a court document they said: “We are unable to grieve our loss. What Cambridgeshire police have done to us is barbaric.”
Police sealed off their village, Hail Weston, before raiding their home, The Times reports. Frenette said his father’s body was “very decomposed” when it was returned and reburied six weeks later.
Cambridgeshire Police said in defence papers lodged at court that the couple were first arrested on suspicion of preventing a lawful burial, concealing a death and obstructing a police officer. They were held the next day for the alleged possession of a firearm and cannabis. The force said it was necessary to arrest the couple “to ensure a prompt and effective investigation, prevent collusion and the contamination or destruction of evidence and to effect a search”.
Mr and Mrs Frenette claimed they were arrested within the five-day limit for registering a death, which they were preparing to do. Mr Frenette said his elderly mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, was held at her sheltered accommodation after she refused to tell a nurse her former husband’s location two days after the burial.
Cambridgeshire Police denied wrongdoing and said in a court document that “the unlawful disposal of a body following an unregistered death is a criminal offence”. Deaths in the UK must be registered within five days. Burials can take place on private land but must be in accordance with the Registration of Burial Act 1864.
This includes checking land deeds, notifying the registrar of the death, creating a burial register, and following distance rules from water sources. Mr Frenette, 60, decorated guns for King Charles and the late Queen and a watch for Sir David Beckham. His wife, 51, is a paramedic.
Mr Frenette’s 80-year-old father died of prostate cancer in September 2023 and at his request the couple took him from Hinchingbrooke Hospital near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, to die at the home of his former wife, Sylvia, 79.
Donna Frenette said: “We took him home from hospital because there was nothing more they could do. He died at 3.20pm and 90 minutes before, the family doctor had come to visit to administer pain relief and said that death was imminent.”
The next day the couple took the body to their home and buried him in a grave next to Mr Frenette’s grandfather’s remains. The Frenettes are taking legal action under the “natural common law of the land” at the Central London county court.Judge Alan Saggerson scheduled a trial for next November.
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