Paedo’s victims back funeral parlour worker who was sacked after refusing to polish his coffin
Mother-of-nine Sam Garner, 50, was fired after being told to tend to the body of convicted child molester Kenneth Glazebrook
A MUM-of-nine has been fired from her job at a funeral parlour after refusing to clean the coffin of an “evil” paedophile.
Sam Garner, 50, who has 11 children and nine grandchildren, was disgusted when she was told to look after the body of elderly pervert Kenneth Glazebrook.
The 88-year-old sex offender, who died in prison, was jailed in February for five years for molesting three little girls.
Two of the paedo pensioner’s victims were family members and his family have called for Sam to be reinstated.
However, the grandmother’s bosses at McCallum and Tritton funeral home in Bootle, Merseyside, insist that her brave stance not to work with the dead body was not the only reason for her sacking.
But Sam, who had to take a day off work when she learned of Glazebrook’s disgusting crimes, said she would not bear to touch the child abuser’s cold corpse.
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She said: “I find paedophiles abhorrent. I didn’t want to touch him.
“I know I have got to feed my children, but my values and my morals wouldn’t let me work with that man.”
Glazebrook’s stepdaughter Sharon Sedwick shared her support for the determined matriarch calling her step-dad “evil”.
She said: “The firm who sacked Sam should hang its head in shame.
“My stepdad’s actions have destroyed the lives of three innocent girls and ripped our family apart.
“He was a horrible, evil man who has fiddled with children in a disgraceful way. How could this woman, as a mum and a gran, treat him just like any other person?”
When Glazebrook’s body arrived at the funeral home from Walton Prison in Liverpool last month, curious Sam searched his name online and uncovered his dark past.
The ex –soldier’s crimes spanned three decades and he admitted five counts of indecent assault at Liverpool crown court.
The dirty deviant’s first victim was only 12 when attacked her in 1972.
His other two targets were molested between 1988 and 1994 and were aged between eight and 14 at the time.
In the late 80s and early 90s, Glazebrook was a retired taxi driver who told his victims he planned to teach them how to kiss “like a husband kisses his wife”.
By then a retired taxi driver, he told them he planned to teach them to kiss “like a husband kisses his wife”.
The criminal was previously convicted of two counts of indecently assaulting two 16-year-old girls in 1965.
Sam said: “When I saw he was from a prison I said to my colleague, ‘I wonder what he has done as he is 88. I bet he is a bank robber.’
“But I remembered a piece from the local paper about an elderly man being jailed for child abuse so I Googled him and it was the same man.
“Normally I arrange funerals and look after the deceased in the chapel, so I straighten their clothes, put things in the coffin and polish the coffin.
“I told my boss that I would deal with his family but I would not have anything to do with him in the chapel.”
After becoming distressed at what she discovered, Sam took the next off from work and was subsequently called to a disciplinary meeting.
Her bosses called her “insubordinate” but she returned to work the following day in time for Glazebrook’s funeral.
Still determined Sam refused to deal with the sex-offender’s body.
She said: “I have done a lot of children’s funerals and I just can’t bear to think about that horrible man going into the same chapel of rest where those poor children have to go.
“If people knew that that man had been in the same chapel as their loved ones... I just couldn’t do it.”
The mother-of-11 said she was fired eight weeks after being made a full-time staff member.
However management at the family firm said her position was already scrutiny over a dispute over her holiday allowance.
She said: “I obviously needed my job and I am going to struggle without it, but it wasn’t a difficult decision for me to say no.
“My work has never been questioned before. I have letters from families thanking me and praising my work. When I was made full-time I was told my work was excellent.
“I was on a high at the age of 50 after bringing up 11 children to get a fantastic job on my own merit but now I have been sacked.”
When the told Glazebrook’s stepdaughter Sharon, 62, of Sam’s sacking she was disgusted.
Mum-of-three Sharon, of Wallasey, said: “This poor woman was completely within her rights not to tend to Kenneth’s coffin. I feel very sorry that she’s lost her job.
“I didn’t realise he had died but there is no way I’d have gone to his funeral. He is pure evil.”
But Andrew Stone, a partner at McCallum and Tritton, said: “There was already a disciplinary in place before anything was mentioned about this funeral. She is being dismissed for outbursts of unreasonable behaviour and insubordination.”
William Eccleston, director of the National Federation of Funeral Directors, said: “Should the lady involved have had concerns, it would have been much more appropriate for her to have discussed these with her firm rather than simply refusing to carry out the job.
“People in the funeral industry have a duty to look after the needs of a lost one’s grieving families regardless of that person’s history.”
Sick Glazebrook molested Karen Robinson and her sister Helen while he was married to their gran Alma.
He targeted them when they eight-years-old and the abuse continued until they were teens.
Neither had any idea of the other’s torment until Karen, now 36, reported Glazebrook’s crimes to the police two years ago.
Helen, 39, then bravely confessed her own ordeal to her family.
Both are now outraged at the sacking of funeral worker Sam.
Karen said: “As soon as I heard what had happened to her, I just wanted to give her a big hug. She is such a lovely woman and she should never have been sacked. for standing up for what she believes in.”
Sam added: “I can’t say how much I appreciate the support of Karen and her sister.
“Neither of us wanted to be in this position but we had a big hug – and a hug says a thousand words.”
Karen said the abuse had left her scarred for life. The mum-of-one added: “The trauma has stayed with me all of my life. My marriage broke down because I was so scared of being intimate with a man.”
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