Gas fitter denies causing deaths

Peter Tongue said he spent 40 minutes cleaning soot from the boiler

A gas fitter believed he had done a "competent job" on a boiler for a pensioner who later died of carbon monoxide poisoning, a court heard.

Margaret Powell, 72, was found dead at her home in Brecon, Powys, along with her friend Thomas Gwyn Morgan, 74.

Cardiff Crown Court heard 12 days before, Peter Tongue, 60, of Llanspyddid, near Brecon, had been paid to fix her central heating boiler.

He denies two counts of manslaughter and six health and safety offences.

Cardiff Crown Court had previously heard that self employed Mr Tongue had attended widow Mrs Powell's home on 4 December 2006, to carry out repairs on her ducted warm air central heating boiler.

Peter Davies, prosecuting, said that when the boiler was examined, part of it was found to be congested with soot.

"As a consequence, it was giving out carbon monoxide and giving it out in lethal quantities," Mr Davies said.

He said the prosecution alleged Mr Tongue was responsible for the deaths "because when he carried out work for Mrs Powell he failed to carry out work on her central heating system properly".

Margaret Powell was found dead in her home with her friend

Mr Tongue, a married father-of-three, told the jury he began working for Wales Gas as an apprentice in 1964.

When the company became British Gas Wales, Tongue said he continued to work for them until 1989 following their privatisation, after which he became self-employed.

He said his Corgi registration briefly expired in September 2002 and was not renewed until May 2003 due to ill health.

Earlier in the trial, Mr Davies said that Tongue's registration to carry out work on the type of boiler Mrs Powell owned had lapsed in 2003.

Giving his defence, Mr Tongue told the court he thought his Corgi registration had entitled him to work on ducted warm air central heating boilers.

When asked by defending barrister Christopher Quinlan how many of these type of boilers he had worked on in the past, Tongue replied "hundreds".

He added that if he did not feel confident enough to carry out the work, he would have told Mrs Powell "to find somebody else".

Smoke test

During the hearing, Tongue demonstrated in court how he cleaned Mrs Powell's boiler using a specialist brush.

He said the boiler looked like it had not been cleaned for a number of years as the heating exchange section was half-filled with soot by the time he had finished brushing.

He said he spent around 40 minutes cleaning and vacuuming the soot away, then carried out a smoke test which the boiler passed.

Mr Quinlan later asked him: "At the time of carrying out the work you had done, did you believe you had done a competent job?"

Tongue replied: "Yes."

When asked whether he was "indifferent or couldn't care less" about the risk to others, Tongue replied: "No."

He denies two counts of manslaughter and six offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

The trial continues.