Harvey Tyrrell Rayleigh: 'Electrician in trial did top class work'

Harvey Tyrrell died on September 11 2018 after he suffered an electric shock in the garden of the King Harold pub in Romford, east London, when he sat on a light on a low wall.

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

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.”

Jurors were later told that Harvey had been playing in the garden with a friend before the other child briefly went to get a bag of crisps.

Mr Penny said: “Harvey was sitting on one of the lamps in the garden and gripping on to the nearby railing with his hands.

“(The friend) was offering Harvey the bag of crisps, urging him to take a crisp from him, but Harvey was not responding, he was leaning backwards with his head hanging back, face up.”

Lewis Tyrrell, Harvey’s father, said he was told his son had fallen off of the wall before running to see him lying on the floor.

A statement heard by the jury said: “He was making gasping noises, the gaps got longer between the gasping sounds, and his breathing became shallow.”

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

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 September 11 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.”

In his police interview, Naylor defended his work, Mr Penny said, adding “as far as he was concerned his installation was first class”.

The electrician later dismissed an expert’s suggestion of water ingress as “bollocks”, the prosecutor continued.

Naylor, of Hockley Road, Rayleigh, Essex, said that he thought it was more likely the metal railings had become live due to another electricity supply rather than the lighting he had installed, but acknowledged this was speculation.

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.

Bearman has also pleaded guilty to a charge of abstracting electricity, after an unlawful unmetered supply was used to steal energy for the pub.

“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.

An investigation into the King Harold after Harvey’s death found 12 defects that posed a risk of injury including electric shock, and 32 potentially dangerous defects.

The prosecution suggested Naylor was familiar with the premises and was aware of “the unsatisfactory state” of the electrics.

Mr Penny also said the 73-year-old told police that, as an electrician of 50 years’ experience, the state of one of the pub’s distribution boards, also known as fuse boards, had caused him to “raise his eyebrows” but that he did not wish to get involved.

The trial will resume on Monday.