Man to be sentenced over blast that killed toddler

A neighbour caused an explosion that killed a two-year-old boy after he cut a gas pipe at his own home to sell it for scrap metal, a court was told.

Darren Greenham, 45, used an angle grinder to cut the pipe in the early hours of May 16 last year, Preston Crown Court was told yesterday.

The resulting blast killed George Hinds, whose family lived in the neighbouring property in Mallowdale Avenue, Heysham. It damaged 55 homes and left Greenham with a serious head injury and loss of most of the use of his right hand. He pleaded guilty in August to manslaughter, damaging a gas metre and theft of gas.

He will be sentenced today.