Look North
News, North East and Cumbria
Seven-year-old Archie York was killed in a blast in Newcastle caused by his neighbour’s illegal attempts to make cannabis sweets. As one of his killers is jailed, Archie’s mother says her son’s death should serve as a warning to other criminals.
Shortly before 01:00 BST on 16 October, the slumbering streets of Benwell were rent by the roar of an enormous explosion.
Katherine Errington had been asleep in her bedroom with her seven-week-old son Finley, when the pair were suddenly bombarded with and buried beneath the walls and contents of their flat.
She initially thought she was having a nightmare, but the taste of blood in her mouth quickly confirmed this was all too real. The utter panic and confusion was replaced by a realisation she was trapped beneath the debris of her home.
She could hear her baby son crying but could not find him in the darkness and destruction – his cries soon gave way to a chilling silence.
“I closed my eyes,” Katherine recalls. “I thought ‘if my son’s gone, as in unalive, I’ll close my eyes and whatever happens I’ll not remember it, I’ll be asleep’.”
Then she heard the shouts of her partner Robbie, desperately searching for her and their baby, and she called back to him so he could zero in on her voice.
Katherine managed to push her foot through the bricks into the dust-filled air, Robbie seizing it gratefully and starting to frantically dig her out, also, miraculously, finding Finley alive and pulling him to safety.
“I got out and looked at where my flat was supposed to be,” she says. “There was nothing left of it.”
The street outside had rapidly filled with neighbours and emergency services, with Katherine and her baby quickly rushed away for medical treatment.
It was at the hospital where police officers told her the explosion had been even more devastating than she had imagined. Her eldest son, Archie, was “gone”.
The last time she had seen him, her “perfect little boy” and Robbie had been asleep on the living room settee.
Seven-year-old Archie had been the dictionary definition of a “mischievous cheeky boy”, his mum says. “He was just a normal, happy little boy.”
He loved superheroes, computer games and school, where “everybody loved him”, Katherine says.
Archie had been overjoyed at the arrival of Finley almost two months earlier, wanting to feed him and change his nappies, maturing overnight into a proper big brother.
“It was just how a family should be,” Katherine recalls. “It was the best seven weeks of my life.”
Within seconds, several houses on Violet Close were practically demolished and a huge fire was raging, with more than 100 people having to be evacuated from their homes.
Initial suspicions were that it was a gas leak, a faulty boiler somewhere, but investigators quickly honed in on the activities of Katherine and Robbie’s downstairs neighbour, 35-year-old Jason Laws, who was also killed in the blast, and his associate Reece Galbraith.
“The scene was hell for almost two months,” Det Ch Insp Katie Smith of Northumbria Police says, detailing the “harrowing” finger-tip searches officers had to make in the rubble in the days and weeks after the blast.
A suspiciously large number of butane cannisters were discovered scattered throughout the debris which, along with other industrial items such as a vacuum oven, indicated a factory making so-called shatter – a glassy-type substance used to form cannabis sweets – was operating in one of the flats.
The blast was caused by a build-up of the highly flammable butane, the gas used in the production process, which was taking place while the neighbours all slept peacefully nearby.
“The dangers go without saying,” Det Ch Insp Smith says. “[Galbraith and his associates] knew about the risks that night, it says on the side of the gas cannister how highly flammable it is.
“They disregarded that to make some money from drugs.
“It caused utter devastation.”
For Katherine, finding out her son had been killed because of the illegal activities of a criminal neighbour only worsened her grief.
“It sickens me that it could have been prevented,” she says. “You are supposed to trust your neighbours.
“This is more upsetting for us because someone chose to do that, it was their choice, not ours.”
The day she was burying her boy, 33-year-old Galbraith was in court denying being responsible for his death.
It was only later, when confronted with the wealth of prosecution evidence against him including DNA, finger prints and mobile phone data, that Galbraith changed his plea and admitted manslaughter.
His initial denials caused further pain and consternation for Katherine.
“He’s got no compassion whatsoever, no remorse for anything he has done,” she says.
She says her life now is indescribable, the shock and grief at the loss of Archie still all-consuming.
Katherine never would have thought the routine of kissing her son goodnight and laying out his school clothes for the next morning would be obliterated in such a violent manner.
But she is also keen to ensure he is remembered for being the “funny little cheeky boy” who “touched so many hearts” rather than for the way he was killed.
Katherine is also keen other criminals heed what happened.
“This should be enough to stop anyone trying to do any illegal activities,” she says.
“[Galbraith] has now got a seven-year-old’s death on his hands from his choice.”
Neither Katherine nor Robbie ever saw a future without Archie.
Their son was going to be a rock for Finley, but the baby is now an only child with no memory of the brother who doted on him.
“I don’t think we will ever move on from this,” Katherine says.
“That day is going to haunt us to the day we die.”
