The parents of a young boy killed after a badly installed mantelpiece fell on him have hit out at the way the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated the tragedy.
Matthew Green, aged four, was killed in 2005 when the mantelpiece fell on him inside his Towcester home, which was built by Persimmon Homes.
Charges were brought against Kristian Childs, a Northampton-based stonemason who installed the mantelpiece, together with Persimmon Homes (Midlands) and its York-based parent company, Persimmon Homes.
However, last week, as exclusively revealed by the Chronicle & Echo, the charges against Persimmon were dropped after “inconsistencies” in the HSE’s investigation were revealed.
Matthew’s parents, David and Gail, this week said: “Our family is very disappointed by the decision of HSE to drop all charges against Persimmon Homes.
“We are at a loss to understand how Persimmon Homes are seemingly not responsible for tragic death of our son Matthew as they built and sold us this house as a newly built property only two years before this incident.
“In addition, as detailed at the coroner’s inquest in 2008, they were in fact aware of a previous incident involving a fireplace mantel at another one of their sites.”
At Northampton Crown Court on Tuesday, almost seven years after Matthew’s death, the charges against Persimmon were dropped after the discovery of previously “unused” material, which made the case “untenable”.
It revealed “significant inconsistencies” within the HSE probe.
It come after Matthew’s parents bought the house from Persimmon Homes in 2003. However, on October 15, 2005, his father was greeting friends at the front door when he heard “a loud crash” from the living room.
Matthew was found lying under the mantel, which had broken in two and crushed him.
He was taken to Northampton General Hospital by air ambulance, but died later.
His parents added: “We have been fighting for justice for Matthew for over seven years and major inconsistencies in the way in which HSE have investigated this case have ultimately led to this case being dropped.
“Whilst we are grateful to HSE for pursuing the responsible parties, we do feel that had this been investigated in a different way then the charges against Persimmon Homes would not have been dropped.
“We will never get over the needless and preventable death of our son and do not feel that justice has in any way been achieved by this outcome. We also want to ensure that further incidents such as this do not happen in the future and in view of this will be looking to bring this to the attention of the media and general public following the sentencing of K D Childs on 10th June 2013.”
Childs, who pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety rules, will be sentenced in June.