'Will you please get us out of that house before somebody dies'

MUM’S PLEA TO COUNCIL OVER DAMP AND COLD HOME MONTHS BEFORE TRAGIC SON’S DEATH

-  STEPHEN TOPPING

A MAN’S home was so cold you could ‘see your breath’ inside, his inquest has heard.

The mother of Luke Brooks, 27, says she told Oldham council months before his death: “For God’s sake will you please get us out of that house before somebody dies?”

An inquest into Mr Brooks’ death last October 25 is being heard at Rochdale Coroners Court this week. His inquest opening in March heard that Mr Brooks’ death had been provisionally linked to a type of mould.

But as proceedings resumed yesterday, coroner Joanne Kearsley called for ‘no speculation’ ahead of the conclusion. The court heard Mr Brooks lived with friend Chris Haycock in one of the Oldham property’s two bedrooms.

Mr Brooks’ parents, Patricia and James Brooks, also lived at the property along with a niece called Elizabeth – while his brother, James, had also moved into the property before Mr Brooks’ death.

Landlords Mark and Alan Sharples, who would have been allowed to ask questions in the inquest as ‘interested persons’, did not attend court yesterday.

The court heard the family moved into the Huxley Street house in 2014. Giving evidence, mum Patricia told the court the family had no working boiler for three years until she arranged for a replacement to be fitted, having failed to get her landlords to resolve it.

Asked by Ms Kearsley if they had ‘no heating at all between 2014 and 2017’, Mrs Brooks replied: “Yeah.” She told the court that even after the new boiler was fitted, the radiators did not work properly, and the house would be cold and damp ‘apart from [during] summer’.