Plumber denies negligence led to Perthshire house blast

Hearing: Man will stand trial next month after pleading not guilty to alleged charges

A plumber accused of causing a gas explosion that obliterated an elderly couple’s home and buried them beneath the rubble is to face trial next month.

Craig Hall is said to have failed to install a boiler properly at Robin and Marion Cunningham’s house in Callander, Perthshire.

It is alleged that Hall, 34, failed to ensure that a gas pipe was properly supported when he fitted the combi boiler at their home in Murdiston Avenue, Callander.

As a consequence, it is alleged, the supply pipe separated from the inlet pipe of the boiler to which it should have been securely joined, allowing gas to escape.

Eight months after Hall carried out the work, the property was completely destroyed in a massive blast.

At 5.45am on August 2 2013 the escaped gas ignited – possibly when Mr Cunningham went to the kitchen to make his wife a cup of tea – resulting in the explosion that ripped through the property.

Mr and Mrs Cunningham were both trapped and had to be freed by firefighters.

Mr Cunningham, then 77, was taken by air ambulance to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow with a back injury and burns.

Mrs Cunningham, then 74, was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary with less serious injuries.

Nine nearby houses were evacuated and Stirling Council set up a rest centre in Callander as emergency services moved in to make the area safe.

Mr and Mrs Cunningham’s home was almost completely demolished in the explosion and diggers were called in to clear the site.

At a preliminary hearing at Stirling Sheriff Court yesterday, Hall, of Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, who was excused attendance, maintained a plea of not guilty to causing the blast by carrying out the installation of the boiler dangerously and otherwise than in accordance with appropriate standards, contrary to the Gas Safety (Installations and Use) Regulations 1988.

He also denied an alternative charge, under the Health and Safety at Work Act, of failing to take reasonable care for Mr and Mrs Cunningham’s safety as a result of his “acts or omissions”.

The trial is scheduled to begin on December 18.

The scene after the explosion destroyed the Cunninghams’ home in 2013.