In May 2021, Darren Greenham used an angle grinder to cut the pipe at his home on Mallowdale Avenue in Heysham, Lancashire. George Hinds, whose family lived next door, was killed in the subsequent explosion. Greenham was sentenced to 15 years in prison at Preston Crown Court after pleading guilty to manslaughter, damaging a gas metre, and gas theft. According to the court, the explosion, which occurred around 2.35am on May 16, 2021, destroyed the council-owned property where Greenham resided. It severely damaged two adjacent terraced houses and impacted an additional 55 properties in the area. Greenham had cut a gas pipe in his own home with the intent of stealing the pipework, and the gas metre had also been bypassed in order to steal gas, according to Lancashire Police. Detectives said he planned to sell the cut pipes for scrap metal and boasted to witnesses that he would make enough money to buy a car. Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham sentenced him, calling him a “selfish and disruptive neighbour.” “He lived his life without regard for the comfort of those who happened to live next to him.” Greenham, according to Lancashire Police, was a “truly selfish and wicked man” whose main motivation in the lead-up to the fatal explosion was “financial greed.” “His reckless actions resulted in the death of a completely innocent toddler, the destruction of several homes, and £100,000 in damage,” the statement continued, “and no sentence will ever make up for George’s death or reflect the pain and misery Darren has caused.” “No one should be able to put their child to bed in a safe place at night and not see them alive again.
