A “neighbour from hell” has been jailed for 15 years for causing a gas explosion that killed a toddler when he cut pipes to sell them for £400.
Two-year-old George Hinds died in the blast in May 2021 when Darren Greenham, 45, used an angle grinder to cut a pipe in his home in Heysham, Lancashire, in the early hours of the morning while intoxicated.
The explosion destroyed Greenham’s council-owned property and caused severe damage to two neighbouring homes, trapping the toddler and his family in the rubble.
In a sentencing hearing at Preston crown court, the boy’s parents described how they were “absolutely heartbroken” and had been left facing a lifetime of grief “all because Darren Greenham decided to cut a gas pipe”.
The judge, Robert Altham, described Greenham as a “selfish and disruptive” neighbour who lived his life “without regard for the comfort of those who were unfortunate enough to live adjacent to him”.
The court was told Greenham had been a “neighbour from hell” for several years. He would regularly abuse those living near him, the court heard, and would light bonfires, throw late-night parties and invite a rotating cast of intoxicated visitors.
George’s parents, Vicky Studholme and Stephen Hinds, said they sent a lengthy list of complaints to Lancashire county council and Lancashire police but that they felt let down by the authorities.
Greenham was in the process of being evicted from the house when he began stripping it for items to sell for cash. In the early hours of 16 May last year, he took an angle grinder to a copper gas pipe that he planned to sell for £400, according to the prosecutor, Timothy Cray.
The act caused a huge blast that reduced the properties to rubble, killing George, who had been asleep next door. The boy’s parents were pulled from the debris and taken to hospital, where they were told their son had died.
Studholme said in a statement read to court: “The house, the car, my possessions can all be replaced but George never can be. I can’t describe in words how much I miss him. I am absolutely heartbroken.”
She added: “Although we reported this countless times, we have been let down by the council and the police – and the death of my beautiful baby boy could have been avoided.”
The judge praised George’s parents, who have been living in a caravan since the explosion, for their dignity, and said he shared their “incomprehension” that anyone could put the lives of so many at risk for the sake of stealing “a few lengths of copper piping”.
Greenham, who sustained a serious head injury and lost much of the use of his right hand in the explosion, pleaded guilty in August to manslaughter, damaging a gas meter and theft of gas.
Another defendant, Paul Marsh, who was said to have altered the gas meter in Greenham’s property so gas could be received for free, was charged with damaging a gas meter and theft of gas, but died before his trial.
Greenham, who showed no emotion in the dock, was given concurrent sentences of one month for the charges of damaging the meter and theft of gas.
