Pubgoer who poured gas onto gasoline heater which exploded into fireball leaving two cousins with horrific burns is acquitted of GBH

A scaffolder who poured liquid fuel on a heater and caused a fireball explosion which left two women with horrific burns has been cleared of causing them grievous bodily harm.

Dale Carter, 30, claimed he was simply trying to re-fuel the tabletop heater when it erupted into flames in an outdoor seating area at the Kings Head pub in Great Cornard, Suffolk.

April Charlesworth, who was celebrating her 28th birthday, and her cousin Ashleigh Charlesworth each suffered serious burns to their face, chest and hands in the fiery blast.

Ipswich Crown Court heard how their friend Carter created a one-foot ball of flames when he first poured ethanol from a bottle on to the box-like heater while it was still alight.

But the flames quickly died down and he then he poured over fuel again, only for the bottle to ignite like a rocket and spray burning fuel over people around the table.

Prosecutor Dingle Clark accepted that he had not deliberately set out to injure anyone when he squirted the fuel into the open heater on the night of April 24, 2021.

Mr Clark argued that he had been recklessly ’fooling around’ and ‘showing off’ when he squirted the fuel into the open heater and did so twice because his first attempt had created an impressive ball of flame.

But Mr Carter argued that his only intention had been to replenish the fuel in the heater as it was running low and the flame it was producing had almost gone out.

He denied two counts of causing grievous bodily harm and a jury took just over an hour to unanimously find him not guilty today after a four-day trial.

Jurors were not shown pictures of the injuries suffered by the two women which led to Ashleigh spending 17 days in hospital and April being treated in hospital for 11 days.

Recorder Nicola Fitches instead ruled that jurors should only be told that the prosecution and defence agreed that both women, now aged 32, had suffered ‘serious bodily harm’.

Carter, of Colchester, Essex, gasped in relief in the dock and held his hands in a prayer gesture as the verdict was announced.

Recorder Fitches told him: ‘You have been found not guilty on both counts of the indictment so you are now discharged on these matters.

‘This means that, unless there are any further matters of which I am unaware, you are free to leave the court.’

The trial heard that the Crown Prosecution Service had initially decided that Carter should not be charged due to there being insufficient evidence and no ‘realistic prospect’ of him being convicted.

But the matter was investigated again after April and Ashleigh asked for the earlier decision to be reviewed and he ended up being charged.

Ashleigh, a former children’s nurse, was put on a ventilator in hospital after her airway started to swell, and needed skin grafts as a result of her injuries. 

April continued attending hospital appointments for nearly a month after her discharge, the jury was told.

The court heard that the incident happened when the cousins were on their first night out after the Covid lockdown, sitting with friends at tables in the car park of their local pub.

It was a cold evening and April’s brother, Sam Charlesworth, had gone to their mother’s home nearby and returned with a tabletop heater and a bottle of ethanol.

He lit the heater and allegedly put the bottle of fuel in a bag before leaving the area where everyone was sitting for a short while.

When he returned, he heard screaming and saw flames on the table and realised that his sister and cousin were badly injured.

Giving evidence, Mr Charlesworth claimed he’d warned Carter about having to be careful with the heater and fuel because of the danger of a fireball.

He said he had joked with the defendant about ‘not setting anybody on fire’ and claimed that Carter had waved his hand through the flame twice and said he was ‘Iron Man’.

Cross-examined by Michael Epstein, representing Carter, he denied leaving the bottle of ethanol on the table or that he was mistaken about issuing a warning to be careful with the heater and fuel.

April’s boyfriend at the time, Mark Lawrence, told the court he saw Carter put fuel from a bottle on the table on the heater.

The first time there was a flame that flashed a foot out of the heater and then disappeared.

The second time he did it the flame was sucked into the bottle, causing it to explode and turn into ‘a rocket’.

Danny Wheeler, another witness, said that after Carter squirted fuel on the heater the second time the lid and end of the bottle were blown off, resulting in a fire which set light to Carter’s hair and people’s clothes.

During questioning of witnesses, Mr Epstein acknowledged the horror of the incident but described it as a ‘freak accident’.

Giving evidence, Carter admitted that Mr Charlesworth had told him that his mother had sent him a message, saying to be careful when using the heater, but he could not remember April telling him not to touch it.

Carter, who needed hospital treatment for burns to his face, said he could recall earlier passing his hand over the flame and remarking that ‘it was not putting out much heat’.

He told how he could remember Mr Charlesworth pouring fuel on the heater without flames erupting and he squirted some on when he could no longer see a flame.

His actions led to a small flare up of a ‘bright light’ flame coming from the heater but it later disappeared so he added more, he said.

Carter said: ‘I stood up and poured the bottle on the white fabric in the middle… I don’t remember how much was put down. It was almost instantly in my face.

‘I remember walking back away from the bench and rubbing my face to get it off. Every time I took my hand off, it was relighting again.’

Carter said he was initially unaware of April and Ashleigh being hurt but could remember firefighters pouring water on his face and putting a mask on him.

Following the incident, he had ‘a massive feeling of guilt’, he said. 

Carter added: ‘I just felt lost to be honest. I was physically hurt and just not myself.’

Asked if he had been ‘cocky or over confident’ when he poured on fuel for a second time, he replied: ‘Relaxed maybe.’

Under cross-examination, he added: ‘My only thought was to top the fire up because it was going out.’

Asked if he was ‘fooling around’ and had decided to pour fuel on a second time to create more flames, he insisted that he was simply trying to re-fuel the heater.

The prosecutor asked him if he was ‘showing off a bit’ while being ‘boisterous’ at a party but he replied: ‘No, I wouldn’t say so… I didn’t have a chance to think about what other people thought I was doing.’

Mr Clark suggested: ‘Isn’t the reality here that you were just showing off? 

‘Nobody suggests you were deliberately doing it to harm people but you must have known there was a risk and how you should have been careful.’

Carter replied: ‘I just remember people saying they were cold and I went to top it up.’

Mr Charlesworth told the court that he had warned Carter about having to be careful with the heater and fuel because of the danger of a fireball.

He said he had joked with him about ‘not setting anybody on fire’ and described how Carter had waved his hand through the flame twice, saying he was ‘Iron Man’.

Carter’s former girlfriend, Sophie Brown, who was in the pub with him at the time, said she had gone to the toilet as the flame from the heater was starting to die down, suggesting it was running out of fuel.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, she said that when she returned, she saw Carter’s face had been burned and Ashleigh was ‘on the floor screaming’.

She said: ‘I asked him what happened, and he was in shock. He replied “I don’t know”… I could tell everyone was in shock.

‘The pub told me that he was passed the bottle to relight the flame. I can’t remember who told me.’

Describing the heater, she said: ‘The only thing we all said was that it didn’t produce much heat so it was pointless to be there.’

Ms Brown said that Carter had needed hospital treatment and been ‘broken’ after the incident. 

She added: ‘He didn’t want to go out. He was very sad and down, and obviously in pain.’

On-call firefighter Matthew Walker, who was called out to the incident, told how he gave first aid to Carter and placed his face in a wet bandage mask, while paramedics helped the two women.

He added in a statement read to the court: ‘He seemed inebriated but was coherent and not slurring his words.

‘He was worried that he would be blamed for what had happened and said he had put something on the fire. He said that Danny had told him to put it on the fire.’

Mr Walker added that he had not noticed ‘any tension or aggression between the people involved’ at the scene.

Rebecca Robertson, who was in the group, told how Mr Charlesworth had gone to fetch the heaters after they had sat at the table for an hour while it was getting increasingly cold.

She was standing around 15ft away when she ‘aware of a commotion coming from the table’ before she heard ‘cheering and screaming’.

She said: ‘I looked over and saw Dale standing between the two benches. I saw a tall flame in front of Dale. 

‘One of the girls had flames to her face and hands. I saw her fall to the floor and roll over to try and put out the flames.’

Ms Robertson added: ‘Ashleigh was screaming, “Help me, help me”. 

‘She tried to take hold of my hand and I could see her hand was badly burned. She started calling for her Dad and her phone.”

‘Members of staff came out with jugs of water to pour all over the burn injuries.’

Ms Robertson said she then went to find April inside the pub and discovered her appearing ‘completely stunned’ and ‘in an extreme state of shock’.

She later recalled seeing Carter on an ambulance stretcher, and him saying: ‘Oh Becky. They will all hate me, tell them I’m sorry’.

Carter declined to comment as he left the court today.