Darren Greenham Bio – Darren Greenham Wiki
Darren Greenham was sentenced to 15 years after pleading guilty to George’s manslaughter. Greenham cut a gas pipe in his property with an angle grinder, planning to steal the pipework, and bypassed the meter to steal gas.
AGE:
Darren Greenham is 45 years old.
DETAIL OF INCIDENCE:
A devastated father whose two-year-old boy was killed in a gas explosion – caused by a ‘selfish’ neighbour cutting a gas pipe so he could sell it for scrap metal – today said he wished it had been him who had died so his son could still ‘be with his mummy.’
Youngster George Hinds was tragically killed in May last year after ‘neighbour from hell’ Darren Greenham used an angle grinder to cut a gas pipe.
Around 20 minutes later, a massive explosion rocked the street in Heysham, Lancashire, killing the two-year-old and injuring four others – including George’s parents, Vicky Studholme and Stephen Hinds. The massive pressure wave from the blast also damaged 55 properties in the area.
Greenham was today sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting charges of manslaughter, damaging a gas meter, and gas theft in August.
The 45-year-old had been ‘removing every bit of pipework he could for weeks before and had altered the gas meter on the property had been changed so that he could receive gas without paying for it.
Following the sentencing, George’s heartbroken father appeared outside court with his wife Vicky, where he was wearing a Paw Patrol tie and clutching a teddy salvaged from the wreckage of their home.
He read an emotional victim impact statement in court, which he placed on a Paw Patrol pillow – one of the few of George’s belongings that could be salvaged from the wreckage.
He said: ‘By Darren Greenham cutting a gas pipe to make a few quid I have lost my son, my absolute world, I am struggling to put into words how I relive the nightmare of the early hours of the 16th May 2021 every day.’
Mr Hinds, who was injured in the fireball, told how he read his son a bedtime story in the mortuary, adding: ‘I regret laying in that rubble screaming for help and being pulled out alive.
‘I wish it would have been me that died and George could be with mummy doing magical things all three-year-olds should be doing, going to the park, swimming, opening his birthday presents and going to see Father Christmas.’
The toddler’s mother added: ‘I went to bed happy and content with my life. I had everything I ever wanted. A home and a loving family. Little did I know this would be taken away by Darren Greenham.
‘Being trapped in the rubble was the scariest I had ever been. This was until I arrived at the hospital to be told that George had died. Walking into that mortuary and seeing my dead son lying in front of me will be a memory that will live with me forever. I was his ‘mummy,’ and my job was to look after him – I had failed.
‘Never would I see him start nursery or school, never would I see him open his presents on his birthday and at Christmas, and never would I be able to see my little boy on Mother’s Day. I dread all these days, together with the anniversary of his death, and they should be happy times; instead, I am sad.
She added: ‘The house, the car, my possessions can be replaced but George can never be. I can’t describe in words how much I miss him. I am absolutely broken…..all because Darren Greenham cut a gas pipe.’