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Darren Greenham, 45, was trying to extract the metal to sell for scrap to fund his addiction in the early hours of May 16 last year in Mallowdale Avenue, Heysham, Lancashire. His selfish actions sparked a fireball that ripped through the property as well as the neighbouring home of toddler George Hinds who was sleeping in a terraced property next door.

George’s parents Vicky Studholme and Stephen Hinds were also injured in the explosion which they described as sounding ‘like a bombing going off”. It also left 55 other properties damaged.

Greenham pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter, damaging a gas meter and theft of gas in August – before he was jailed today (October 5) at Preston Crown Court.

Sentencing him for manslaughter, Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham said: “Mr Greenham was a selfish and disruptive neighbour.

“He lived his life without regard for the comfort of those who were unfortunate enough to live adjacent to him.”

George’s father, Stephen Hinds, told the court Greenham had made the lives of his neighbours a ‘misery’.

His neigbour, who was previously dependent on alcohol and drugs, would also play loud music until the early hours and hurl insults at his young son.

Giving evidence on Tuesday, Mr Hinds, who wore a blue Paw Patrol tie and took a Paw Patrol toy into the witness box with him as a tribute to his son, said: “By Darren Greenham cutting a gas pipe to make a few quid I have lost my son, my absolute world.

“It makes my blood boil now, I always did the right thing and reported it to the council and the police, nothing was ever done.”

In a statement, George’s mother, Vicki Studholme, said Greenham made her feel ‘unsafe’ in her own home, referring to him as a ‘neighbour from hell’ who would make threats of violence towards her and her family.

She said: “I do feel that 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.”

“After the explosion, being trapped in the rubble was the most scared I had ever been in my life. This was until I arrived at the hospital to be told that George had died.

“Never, ever have I felt so scared as in that moment of my life.”

The court heard that the explosion, which occurred at 2.36am, destroyed the council-owned property that Greenham lived in. Two neighbouring terraced houses were also destroyed in the explosion.

Shocked locals described hearing a noise ‘like a bomb going off’ at the time of the blast, which caused debris to cover nearby streets and fields

Timothy Cray KC, prosecuting, said at the time of the explosion, the council had been considering eviction proceedings against Greenham after several complaints regarding his behaviour.

He said: “He had been removing every bit of pipework he could for weeks before, seemingly because he knew he was going and he wanted to make what he could from selling it as scrap.”

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) report after the explosion revealed that wooden floorboards had been removed from the first floor landing of the house and gas pipes had been deliberately cut.

It is believed that the blast would have happened around 20 to 40 minutes after they were cut and there would likely have been a strong smell of gas and an audible noise, according to the report.

Peter Glenser KC, defending, noted that Greenham was sober for the first time in ‘many, many years’ since being in custody while awaiting sentence.

He said: “With that sobriety has come a clarity and an insight that he didn’t have through all his years of drink and drugs, and that clarity and insight has enabled him to see for the first time what terrible harm he has caused.”

Greenham, who suffered a severe head injury and lost most of the use of his right hand in the blast, was jailed under the gaze of little George’s family who watched on from the public gallery alongside a number of neighbours.

Judge Robert Altham 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’.

Following sentencing today, Lancashire Police said: “Darren is a truly selfish and wicked man whose main motivation in the build-up to the fatal explosion was financial greed. His reckless actions caused the death of a completely innocent toddler, destruction to several homes and hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of damage.

“No sentence will ever make up for the loss of George’s life or reflect the pain and misery Darren has caused.

“No-one should put their child to bed at night, in a place of safety, and not be able to see them alive again. Our thoughts are with George and his family.”

Greenham, who displayed no emotion in the dock, was given concurrent sentences of a month in jail for the charges of damaging the meter and theft of gas.

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