A seven-year-old boy was electrocuted in a pub garden after an experienced electrician installed lighting which had "significant defects", a court has heard.

Harvey Tyrrell died on September 11 2018 after he suffered an electric shock while playing with his young friend in the garden of the King Harold pub in Romford, Essex.

The electrician who installed the lighting, 73-year-old Colin Naylor, of Hockley Road, Rayleigh denies a charge of manslaughter by gross negligence.

The boy was visiting the pub with his parents when he sat on a wall, making contact with one of the metal casings on the lights fixed around the perimeter.

Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC said: "In essence, when young Harvey both touched one of the garden lights by sitting on it and took hold of some nearby metal railings it seems clear that electricity then flowed through his body, causing fatal damage.

"He collapsed to the ground in front of another boy with whom he was playing. These events were watched by a number of adults in the area who immediately went to assist him."

The electrician who installed the lighting, 73-year-old Colin Naylor, of Hockley Road, Rayleigh denies a charge of manslaughter by gross negligence.

Clacton and Frinton Gazette: Colin Naylor has denied the manslaughter of Harvey TyrrellColin Naylor has denied the manslaughter of Harvey Tyrrell

He also denies a second charge of failing to discharge a duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act by failing to take reasonable care to limit the risk or prevent the danger of serious injury or death.

On Thursday, jurors at Snaresbrook Crown Court were told the lighting circuit attached around the garden's perimeter had been installed by Naylor in June 2018.

Mr Penny said the lights featured "significant defects" including inadequate insulation to prevent water from getting inside.

He said: "The two key pre-existing faults which significantly contributed to the metal casing of the light fitting being live on 11 September 2018 and capable of inflicting electric shock were the lack of appropriate insulation in the lighting circuit installed by Mr Naylor and the lack of earthing at the distribution board from which this circuit was powered."

Jurors heard that there were a number of significant problems in the electrics throughout the pub owned by Naylor's brother-in-law and fellow electrician David Bearman, who previously entered a guilty plea to Harvey's manslaughter.

"Ladies and gentlemen make no mistake about it, there can be no doubt that when the health and safety executive came to inspect Mr Bearman's premises in September 2018 in the aftermath of these events, overall the premises were very dangerous indeed," Mr Penny added.

The prosecution suggested Naylor was familiar with the premises, doing various jobs as an electrician in the spring and summer of 2018.

Clacton and Frinton Gazette: Harvey TyrrellHarvey Tyrrell

Mr Penny said Naylor told police that as an electrician of fifty years' experience, the state of one of the pub's distribution boards, also known as fuse boards, had caused him to "raise his eyebrows".

Mr Penny said every circuit going into the same fuse box as the lights was not properly earthed, missing this safety feature.

He continued: "You might well think that in installing an outdoor lighting circuit which would be subject to the vagaries of the British weather, this defendant was under a duty to check that every appropriate and adequate safety feature was present and functioning in the instillation with which he was concerned."

Jurors were told that Bearman had been warned about "numerous electrical defects" at the pub during a visit from environmental health officers from the borough of Havering in January 2009.

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A second visit in April 2009 showed the deficiencies had not been rectified, but the next month Bearman said they would be addressed.

No further investigation followed, and regulations were changed in 2013 putting the onus on property owners to organise inspections.

Mr Penny said staff at the pub said lights would regularly trip, the fuse boxes appeared to be overloaded and an appliance was plugged into a melted extension cord.

The jury was later told Bearman was "blown across the cellar" after touching a fuse box in the summer of 2018, leaving him with a very large purple injury on his left arm.

In an interview with the police, Naylor said he was aware of the injury but said he was not aware it related to an issue with the electricity supply.

  • The trial continues