Bodged installation killed boaters

A GAS safety engineer is on trial for manslaughter after his bodged boat installation killed his partner and her daughter while they slept.

Preston Crown Court heard how Matthew Eteson, a registered gas safety engineer, 'installed a botched petrol-driven generator system on his boat that led to his partner and her daughter, suffering carbon monoxide poisoning as it filled their cabin', Mick Fitzgibbons tells us.

Carbon monoxide sensors disabled

Eteson was sleeping in a separate cabin further from the generator and was not affected. It was told he allegedly knew that carbon monoxide sensors on boat were disabled, and is now on trial for manslaughter by gross negligence.

He installed the botched system on his motor cruiser Arniston, and as his partner Kelly Webster and her 10 years old daughter Lauren Thornton had a sleep, carbon monoxide from the petrol generator built up inside their cabin and killed the pair.

No warning

Eteson is on trial for manslaughter by gross negligence after it emerged that the carbon monoxide sensors in his boat had previously been disabled, resulting in the pair not being warned of the build-up of fatal carbon monoxide.

Graham Reeds QC, prosecuting, told the court that the generator, that was designed for outside use to supply power, was positioned inside the boat, with a system of pipe work and joints attached to the exhaust silencer, which he, Eteson failed to properly secure, with consequently union clips he had used coming loose and the exhaust system becoming detached from the pipe-work through a failure of joints at two points, allowing carbon monoxide to escape.

Detectors had their wires cut

It was told that reconstruction tests were carried out on the system constructed by Eteson, with the fabricated exhaust system collapsing after just three and a half minutes, that left the generator still running and discharging gases. It was found the carbon monoxide detectors had been disabled by their wires being cut.

Eteson has pleaded not guilty to the charges.